Preparing for Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement

The nationwide rollout of smart energy meters is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, enabling automatic readings for the majority of homes and businesses across Britain.

This milestone paves the way for the next major step in the UK’s energy transformation: the introduction of Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) in 2027. Under this reform, all electricity meters will be configured to send consumption data every 30 minutes.

By providing high-resolution demand data across the grid, MHHS will support a more innovative, cleaner and more efficient electricity system. However, while the reform unlocks new opportunities for flexibility, sustainability and savings, it also brings the potential for increased complexity and cost for businesses managing a large portfolio of electricity meters.

What is the Market-wide Half-hourly Settlement reform? 

The Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) reform is a major change to the inner workings of the British electricity market.

Currently, there are two separate metering and settlement processes for the energy market.

Energy-intensive commercial properties already have half-hourly electricity meters that transmit readings every 30 minutes.

Smaller commercial properties and households have non-half-hourly meters. Even if these properties are using smart meters, the automatic readings are often configured to transmit only once daily.

Under the reform, all meter types will begin transmitting readings every thirty minutes, providing much more granular consumption data to the market.

Actions for businesses 

MHHS relies on the vast majority of commercial electricity meters automatically transmitting readings every 30 minutes.

Under the MHHS reform, meters that are failing to transmit readings will need to be manually read quarterly by your energy supplier. This is much more frequent than the current requirement of once every two years.

Inevitably, the additional effort required by your energy supplier will translate into higher standing charges on your energy tariff.

We recommend reviewing your portfolio of electricity meters to ensure that each meter is successfully communicating automatic readings to your supplier. By logging into your supplier’s online account or checking a recent bill, you will be able to see whether recent meter readings are “actual” or estimated.

If you identify meters that are failing to transmit readings, we recommend contacting your energy supplier to arrange for a meter replacement or the installation of an automatic meter reading device. Meters at commercial properties with a low power demand are eligible for a free smart meter upgrade as part of the national rollout.

Opportunities for businesses

The transition to Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement presents an opportunity for businesses.

Business energy suppliers are expected to begin offering more innovative multi-rate tariffs that enable businesses to reduce costs by shifting their power demand to off-peak hours. Here’s an example of the types of tariffs expected to emerge from the reform:

• Dynamic time-of-use tariffs – A tariff where unit prices per kWh change dynamically depending on actual market conditions. This enables highly flexible business operations to adjust their consumption according to those conditions.
• Critical peak period tariffs – A tariff that offers businesses a rebate for significantly reducing consumption during periods of extreme demand on the grid.
• Demand flexibility incentives – Automatic meter readings every 30 minutes enable businesses to participate in the Demand Flexibility Service, earning compensation for reducing power demand on request.

If you already have automatic meter readings for your business, we recommend using a business electricity comparison service to find the cheapest multi-rate business electricity tariffs currently available in the market.

-ends-