Smart data guide

The Government has laid out plans for every home and small business in Great Britain to have a smart meter before the end of December 2025. By upgrading the UK’s portfolio of traditional meters, this initiative will provide the UK with a smart energy network. It’s an important step towards reaching the UK’s target of producing net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Smart meters will collect your meter readings throughout the day and will store your readings for 13 months. Once a reading is older than 13 months, the smart meter will delete the information.

Smart meters can send us a breakdown of your consumption data at half-hourly intervals.

Sharing your data half-hourly allows you to access SSE Clarity – our free online energy management portal. SSE Clarity shows you where and how your business uses energy. And when you understand this, you can use that knowledge to help you lower your energy use, and your bills.

Smart meters send and receive information using a secure wireless network, allowing your meter to send us your meter readings automatically.

What are the benefits of smart meters?

Accurate bills - your smart meter will send us your meter readings, almost eliminating the need forestimated bills. We do rely on a Wide Area Network (WAN) to receive your readings. If this signal, or the meter, should fail then we will produce a bill based on estimated readings, manual readings, or we may recommend alternative communication methods.

No more meter reading visits – smart meters allow your meter to be read remotely, meaning we won’t have to visit your premises to read your meter. Please note some visits will still be necessary to check the meter is working properly.

Access to SSE Clarity – you’ll get access to SSE Clarity. Our free online energy management platform presents the data from your smart meter in easy-to-understand graphs and tables. This will help to give you a better understanding of where and how your business uses energy.

Could help you save money – by seeing how much energy you’re using and having an idea of which areas of your business use the most energy, you may be able to reduce your energy usage and save money.

How to access the consumption data your meter records

There are three ways to access the energy consumption data recorded by your smart meter:

1. SSE Clarity – if you already have a smart or AMR meter and you’re signed up to an electricity or gas plan with us, you can access SSE Clarity to view your half-hourly energy consumption data. This is the most convenient way to access your half-hourly data – you’ll find more information on our SSE Clarity page online.
2. On request – we can provide you with your half-hourly consumption data on request. Simply call 0345 725 2526.
3. Using your own consumer access device (CAD) – if you have your own CAD and a compatible application, these can be linked directly to your smart meter. Please call 0345 725 2526 and we can set this up for you. Please note: we do not provide CADs or applications.

Before we collect your personal information and meter readings, we will:

• Make sure we tell you why we need the information (including your meter readings).

When we collect your personal information and meter readings, we will:

• Collect your information lawfully and only in connection with your relationship with us, as explained in our privacy policy.
• Do our best to ensure your personal information is accurate and kept up-to-date.
• Avoid collecting any unnecessary information.
• Protect your information and meter readings and make sure only authorised people have access to it.
• Make sure we only keep your information as long as necessary, in line with our legal and regulatory duties.
• Advise you in advance, and where necessary obtain your permission, if the way your
• information and meter readings are to be used changes, or if they are to be used for different purposes.
• Remind you at regular intervals throughout our relationship of the choices you have made for our use of your personal information, including your meter readings.
• Advise you how to access the energy consumption information stored on your smart meters.
• Ensure any third parties who may hold your information on our behalf will apply the same standards to safeguard your information. We will always remain responsible for their use of your information.

We will not:

• Use meter readings from your smart meter to market products or services to you, if you have asked us not to.
• Make any changes to your account without contacting you first.
• Give third parties your personal information or your meter readings for their own marketing purposes without your agreement.
• Transfer your personal information and meter readings to an organisation outside of the
• United Kingdom unless such an organisation ensures an adequate level of protection in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation to safeguard your personal information.
• Collect consumption information about the use of individual appliances in your premises, unless it is needed for a particular product or service you have agreed to take from us.

Your responsibilities:

• Please provide us with accurate information.
• Please tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes to the information provided, such as a change of address to help us to keep your information accurate and up-to-date.
• Please tell us as soon as possible if you notice a mistake in the information we hold about you.

Keeping your personal information secure:

• The meter readings we collect from smart meters will be protected using a range of security measures, including those agreed with the Government.
• Access to information from your smart meter will be limited to authorised members of staff who have received appropriate training.
• Any third parties who may hold your information on our behalf will apply appropriate standards to safeguard your information and we will remain responsible for their use of your information.

Who else may be given access to the information collected from your smart meter?

• Organisations and agents that we appoint to help us with our day-to-day business obligations or who help us provide products and services to you. We will ensure that these organisations follow this smart meter data guide.
• Industry parties, such as network companies who help manage energy supply, distribution and central industry systems.
• The police or other organisations, including industry bodies involved in preventing and detecting theft or fraud. Whenever possible we will tell you if they need to disclose information about you to any other party.
• If you decide to leave us, we will still be able to access historical meter readings for the period we supplied you – we won’t be able to access any new information generated from your smart meter from the date your new supplier takes over.
• Organisations we have been asked to provide information to, by Ofgem or the Government, to undertake questionnaires or surveys.

How we can help:

If you have any queries regarding your rights, you may contact us by sending an email to energybusinessdps@sse.com

We can provide more information on:

• Finding out what information we hold about you.
• How to correct any mistakes in your information.
• Agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information.
• Circumstances where we can pass on your personal information without telling you (such as in relation to a criminal investigation).
• How we collect, use and delete your personal information.
• How we maintain accurate and up-to-date information.
• You should also read our privacy policy which sets out how we will use your personal information.

If you would like to contact our data protection officer, you can do so at the following addresses:

Email: dpo@legal.sse.com

Post: Data Protection Officer,
No. 1 Forbury Place, 43 Forbury Road,
Reading,
RG1 3JH

To view this in a pdf, click here. Or, to request a copy of this document in a different format, please contact our SSE Energy Solutions customer services team on 0345 725 2526.