Navigating the complexity of P272: IMServ and Opus Energy work in partnership to meet the challenges of the half hourly settlement market
For over 20 years IMServ has been working closely with energy suppliers to help deal with the various industry changes. One of the most notable transformations in the last decade has been the P272 rule change, which requires thousands of sites around the country to move to the half hourly settlement market.
Industry change in the UK electricity market can be hugely complex and requires the collaboration of many independent organisations. Typically any adjustments or overhauls to regulations are implemented to provide consumers with greater choice. The challenge with P272 was introducing a supplier driven compulsory and complex rule change, without it having an adverse impact on the consumer.
Opus Energy
Richard Hill, Head of Utilities at IMServ, has been working with energy suppliers to help them with the transition. One supplier Richard has been working with closely is Opus Energy, which has over 5000 sites moving to the half hourly market before April 2017. Richard said: “Our job is to ensure that energy suppliers seamlessly complete the change, without letting any of its customers down. It is also critical that IMServ meets the timescale requirements. In the case of Opus Energy, our teams have worked closely with one another to ensure that jobs are completed in the timeframe expected by Ofgem.”
Ofgem Regulations
Transferring meters to the half hourly market is one step further to greater accuracy of customers’ bills. Richard explains, “Ofgem, in the past, has fined companies millions of pounds for not billing customers correctly. By working in partnership with our supplier customers, including Opus Energy, we have helped to prevent this happening by providing highly accurate billing.”
Some companies have reacted with resignation towards the industry changes, however Opus Energy was keen to get started and has been passionate about the industry change ever since.
Richard added: “There are some suppliers that are failing to meet the various regulations and timings, which is why the close relationship between Opus Energy and IMServ is so important during this change. We’ve seen in the industry that the most successful partners are the ones taking action sooner rather than later.”
Experts in the sector
“Suppliers such as Opus Energy have to confirm how much energy its customers have used, therefore, by collecting quality consumption data every 30 minutes, Opus Energy can give its customers an accurate bill based on actual energy usage.”Developing a relationship over many years, IMServ has helped Opus Energy with various industry challenges, with P272 being one of the most complex. Andy Nash, Operations Director at Opus Energy, is impressed with the work ethic at IMServ and the knowledge it has in the energy sector.
Andy said: “The support and knowledge of the process and the industry has helped out so much, we are delighted that IMServ is helping maintain our P272 project plan requirements for Ofgem. There have also been challenges where the window to make the change of measurement class dates has been tight, we appreciate that IMServ has taken sites on at short notice and supported us with the changes enabling us to continue to meet our project plan and obligations.”
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Editors Notes
About Opus Energy
Opus Energy is one of the UK’s leading business energy suppliers, ranking in the Sunday Times Top Track 250 for the last five years, most recently in 19th position. The company employs over 700 people between its Northampton and Oxford-based offices, and was named one of the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2015 by the Sunday Times. Opus Energy supplies more than 240,000 business locations across the UK with electricity and gas. Customers include: White Stuff, Paperchase, First Group and Virgin Media. In 2014, Opus Energy received the Customer First UK: Putting the Customer First national customer service accreditation.
In addition to supplying energy, Opus Energy also purchases power from over 2,000 renewable generators in the UK which it then supplies to its customers. The management team has a 50 per cent stake in the business, while ENGIE holds 30 per cent and Telecom Plus Plc. has 20 per cent.
For more detailed information please visit http://www.opusenergy.com/
About IMServ
Founded in 1992 as part of the UK electricity market deregulation, IMServ originated as the UK’s sole electricity data collector. IMServ has an established reputation in delivering high quality Data Collection and Meter Operations services to a vast range of Suppliers, Energy Consultancies and organisations across all business sectors in the UK. IMServ is responsible for retrieving energy usage data on over 200,000 UK sites, collecting around 1.6 million units of data every day, with over a 98% settlement account and regularly exceeding data performance and accuracy targets.
Andy said: “The support and knowledge of the process and the industry has helped out so much, we are delighted that IMServ is helping maintain our P272 project plan requirements for Ofgem. There have also been challenges where the window to make the change of measurement class dates has been tight, we appreciate that IMServ has taken sites on at short notice and supported us with the changes enabling us to continue to meet our project plan and obligations.”