Tackle Higher Energy Bills By Shopping Around For Your MOP DC/DA Providers

If your business is caught by the P272 legislation, one of the first differences you’ll notice after the move to half-hourly (HH) billing will be how the charges on your energy bill are made up. Every half hourly settlement contract requires instruction of a Meter Operator (MOP) to maintain the HH meter as well as a Data Collection/Data Aggregation (DC/DA) provider, and once your business is moved over to half hourly billing, payment for these services will form a part of the non-commodity costs you will see on your invoice. For many businesses, these additional costs will also be accompanied by a change in commodity costs – as businesses who use the most power at peak times will inevitably see their bills increase. It is therefore vital to be prepared for P272; to take control of those aspects of your bill on which you can have an impact and mitigate as far as possible any rise in costs. Here we look at how shopping around for your MOP and DC/DA providers could save you up to £600 per meter contract* and why handing over the process to a third party might help minimise the additional burden of P272.

Step 1 – awareness

P272 affects businesses from every sector but awareness of its implications is relatively low, particularly in the retail and leisure sector. It’s important to have a portfolio-wide insight into how your organisation will be affected and to know exactly which and how many of your electricity supplies fall under the new legislation.

Step 2 – examine existing contracts

Many larger businesses will already have existing half hourly electricity supplies and will therefore have existing MOP and DC/DA contracts. Thoroughly examine your existing contract terms and end dates. By understanding your pre-existing contracts you may uncover ways of securing the best deals on your new P272 supplies. When it comes to budgeting, your existing MOP DC/DA contracts can also give a good indication of what prices will be applied to new contracts and give you a starting point for downward negotiation. Which leads us on to our next step…

Step 3 – be ready to negotiate terms

It is worth being aware that most MOP and DC/DA providers use five year terms as a minimum contract length.  Does this length of contract work for your business or would it be wise to negotiate more flexible terms, so that HH supplies can be added in and removed throughout the contract duration?

Once you’ve made your choice of service provider(s), you will need your supplier to make an agent appointment before the contract can take effect. From there, it is a case of watching the data and monitoring future bills. Half hourly billing will provide a wealth of new information about your energy consumption, and savvy businesses will use this to help drive new efficiencies and further mitigate costs. When placing your contracts, also think about the type of data you will need from your DA/DC in order to better inform your energy management strategies, exception reporting and sustainability reporting. In this respect, all providers are not equal: a default contract might only provide you with a monthly CSV file, whereas other providers could supply you with a daily Day+1 feed in the right format to feed directly into your reporting software.

Help when you need it

Auditing the energy supply for your portfolio, then deciding upon the best contract and negotiating favourable terms, is a process which unfortunately creates an additional administrative burden for your business. As getting the right MOP and DC/DA provider in place can have a significant impact on your energy bill, it may be something you wish to seek professional advice on. Instructing an expert to take care of your P272 requirements will ensure that both cost and operational aspects are considered before your contract is placed, and ensure that wherever possible contracts are consolidated at the best price.

Why not get in touch today?

Inenco have relationships with a variety of MOP and DA/DC providers, which helps drive competition and ensures we can secure the best deals for our customers. We’ll also take the stress out of P272 by making sure everything runs smoothly when you move over to HH settlement, getting all of the necessary contracts in place and seeing to it that new agent agreements are set up correctly

Contact us for more information