Consumer advantages from half-hourly metering and load profiles in the UK competitive electricity market

The UK electricity market is maturing with the extension of competition in electricity supply to all consumers being completed last year. A diversity of customer services are provided by the electricity suppliers and can include information services for example half-hourly load data. In the UK competitive market, consumers with half hourly metering, or with the ability to measure their electrical load profiles, have new possibilities of controlling costs as a result of the more detailed consumption data available to them. Load management and cost control opportunities that can benefit both supplier and consumer include incorporating the data into computer aided production management (CAPM) systems refining production scheduling, or implementing management strategies utilising the load and cost data. The paper includes case studies demonstrating consumer cost savings.