A Guide to Half-Hourly Meters

For businesses with high energy use, accurate meter reading is essential to ensure that bills are correct. Companies with a peak demand of 100 kilovolt-amps (kVA) or more are required to use a half-hourly meter to measure usage and many other businesses that use less could also potentially benefit from this kind of system.

In this guide, we look at half-hourly meters in detail to help your business make an informed decision that is right for your circumstances.

Half-Hourly Meters Explained

Half-hourly meters are a type of smart meter for businesses that automatically submit a reading to the supplier every 30 minutes. The meter will record the company’s energy use every single half hour of every 24 hours, seven days a week. Having a half-hourly meter means that taking manual readings isn’t required. It provides the supplier with these regular readings to ensure that billing is accurate, with no estimations of usage needed.

A half-hourly meter is designed to measure large amounts of energy, much more so than a standard meter, so it’s necessary for businesses with extensive energy use to install one.

The display on the half-hourly meter will include a reading, but there is no need for this to be sent to the supplier manually, as the regular 30-minute updates are sent automatically.

Some half-hourly meters might have two rates, depending on the energy tariff that the business is on. There may be a separate day rate and night rate (with the night rate being cheaper) so that companies which are able to carry out their most energy-intensive activities at night can do this more economically. While this might not be useful to businesses that operate during normal office hours, it could make a huge difference to companies that run machinery or offer energy-intensive services at off-peak times.

For more information on smart meters, visit our guide on how to read your business smart meter.

Which Businesses Need to Have a Half-Hourly Meter?

Under current UK regulations, any business that uses electricity for at least 100 kVA in a half-hour period is required to install and use a half-hourly meter.

kVA (kilovolt amps) is a unit of electricity that measures the power a system uses. It’s sometimes called ‘apparent power’. If the system used by a business (for example, a generator) is 100% efficient, then 100 kVA would equal 100 kWh (kilowatt-hours). However, electrical systems are never 100% efficient. This means that in reality, 100 kVA will always be less than 100 kWh, but it gives a guide to businesses on whether their energy usage is around the level of where a half-hourly meter is legally required.

The reason why businesses with large energy consumption are required to have a half-hourly meter is to help measure demand on the grid at all times and to help ensure that local electricity networks can handle the amount of energy being used, along with all of the other requirements for homes and businesses in that area.

How to Tell if a Business Already Has a Half-Hourly Meter

If a business moves into a different commercial premises, you might not be aware of whether you already have a half-hourly meter installed or not. There will be an indication of this on the most recent energy bill for the premises, shown in a grid similar to the below example.

If the number in the top left, directly to the right of the ‘S’ reads ‘00’, the premises already has a half-hourly meter fitted.

The Benefits of Half-Hourly Meters for Businesses

There can potentially be several benefits of half-hourly meters for businesses, including:

No Estimated Bills

An issue for many businesses and individuals is if their energy bills are estimated by the supplier and not actually accurate to what is being used. This can mean higher bills than necessary, as the estimates made could be based on data that isn’t relevant to that specific business.

With a half-hourly meter, readings are automatically sent to the supplier every 30 minutes, 24/7, meaning the bills that the business receives will accurately reflect what has actually been used.

It also means that no one in the business needs to spend their time taking manual meter readings and sending these to the supplier, freeing up time to focus on more important company activities.

High Visibility of Usage

The frequency at which readings are taken can give businesses a huge amount of information about energy use. You’ll be able to see when you’re using the most energy, which can be correlated with the activities going on in the workplace at that time.

This can help you to take energy-saving measures to reduce unnecessary consumption or even move some operations or activities to different times when you can benefit from a cheaper rate, such as overnight if you’re on a ‘time of use’ business electricity tariff.

With such detailed usage information, especially when comparing days, weeks, months and years of data, businesses can improve forecasting and budgeting for energy, which can be beneficial to wider company planning and cash flow management.

Can Any Business Get a Half-Hourly Meter?

If your business is close to the threshold for needing a half-hourly meter, or you are expecting to meet the threshold soon because of a change in your business activities or expansion, it might be worth speaking to your supplier about installing a half-hourly meter.

However, many standard business smart meters have the functionality to provide very regular readings which can bring many of the benefits of half-hourly meters, such as accurate bills and insightful usage data. This means that many smaller businesses, with usage significantly lower than the threshold, may not have any need to install a half-hourly meter.

Are Half-Hourly Meters More Expensive Than Standard Meters?

Half-hourly meters are sometimes associated with higher standing charges, although this will depend on the specific energy tariff that the business is currently contracted to with the supplier. As half-hourly meters are designed for companies with high energy use, there are often special tariffs available for businesses which offer a lower unit rate for the electricity used.

Businesses wanting to find out if you can save money on energy by switching to a different half-hourly meter tariff can compare business energy prices to get quotes on deals currently available.

It’s worth noting that if you wish to leave an energy contract early, there may be exit fees to pay. If you are coming to the end of your current agreement or have rolled onto a deemed contract when your previous contract term ended, now is a great time to find out if you can save money by switching business energy.