Half-Hourly Settlement isn’t just fairer for consumers, it’s transformative for the UK grid – Chris Mawer

Summary

Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) is the most significant reform to the UK energy market in decades. By replacing estimated profiles with more accurate data, it enables fairer billing, smarter tariffs, and a system that rewards consumers for how they actually use energy. In this article, Chris Mawer, Business Development Director at SMS, explains why this change is so important for UK businesses, and how SMS is providing the infrastructure, data, and insight that make that transition possible.

Traditional energy billing doesn’t reflect real consumption

Before half-hourly settlement, most households and smaller businesses were billed using profiles – standard daily patterns of electricity use created from averages across similar customers. Instead of reflecting real consumption, bills were calculated against the “typical” shape of demand for that group.

For most households, for example, that profile assumes energy use rises in the morning, drops in the middle of the day, and then peaks again in the early evening around 6pm. The problem is that not everyone uses energy in that way – and the system does not reward people who try to use energy more efficiently.

Take a family who deliberately runs their dishwasher at 11pm to avoid the evening peak. Under the old system, their total consumption for the day would still be spread across the assumed profile, with a chunk of it allocated into the 6pm peak period – even though they did not use it then. In other words, they end up paying as if they behaved like the “average household,” not as they actually did.

If that mismatch is frustrating at a domestic level, the problem is magnified for small businesses. Unlike large commercial sites that already use half-hourly metering, many SMEs have until now been billed on estimated profiles. These users stand to gain the most from Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement, as accurate data allows suppliers to design tariffs and services that reflect real behaviour.

With the help of automation and AI-driven analytics, suppliers can interpret half-hourly data at scale, enabling smarter products and helping consumers act on insights in real time. The result is a system that’s not only fairer, but also more efficient and responsive across millions of customers.

Making metering fairer for consumers

With half-hourly settlement, suppliers can create tariffs that directly reflect real behaviour. This means big MHHS benefits for businesses, making smarter energy management both possible and financially worthwhile.

For example, a regional office building running EV chargers and HVAC systems can use half-hourly settlement to optimise when those loads operate. Under MHHS, accurate half-hourly data means suppliers can design tariffs that reward this kind of flexibility.

This is the real shift: instead of paying according to averages and assumptions, households and businesses alike will be rewarded for the choices they make.

MHHS makes the UK grid more clean, resilient, and ready for net zero

The benefits of half-hourly data go beyond individual billing. They extend across the entire energy system, transforming how supply and demand are managed. When renewable energy is abundant – for example, on a sunny afternoon for solar energy – suppliers can lower prices in real time to encourage demand. That reduces wasted generation and cuts reliance on fossil-fuel backup.

At national scale, millions of these small adjustments add up. Suppliers can forecast more accurately, procure energy more efficiently, and avoid expensive peaks. The grid becomes more resilient, renewables are used more effectively, and the UK moves closer to its net zero targets.

As outlined in the government’s Clean Power 2030 strategy, flexible, data-led systems like MHHS are a cornerstone of a smarter energy network – one that makes the most of renewable generation while enabling demand-side participation across businesses and communities.

SMS delivers the infrastructure to make this transformation possible

We already manage more than seven million smart and advanced meters across the UK, providing the hardware that underpins MHHS. Our SmartVision platform gives suppliers and end-users clear, real-time visibility of energy use – from a business optimising refrigeration cycles to a supplier designing fairer tariffs.

Reliability is key. MHHS can only succeed if every data point is accurate and transmitted securely. That depends on robust communications networks, reliable metering equipment, and trusted data validation services – areas where SMS’s end-to-end MHHS qualification across Data and Metering Services ensures resilience and compliance from source to settlement.

Technology and automation will also be central to unlocking the full value of MHHS. From AI-driven analytics that identify efficiency opportunities to automated demand response platforms that act on them in real time, intelligent systems will help businesses capture value from flexibility while supporting grid stability.

With three decades of experience in energy infrastructure, we are helping suppliers prepare early, avoid disruption, and make sure households and businesses see the benefits from day one.

A fairer, smarter energy system is within reach

Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement is not just a regulatory change – it is the foundation of a new kind of energy market.
At SMS, we are proud to be enabling that transformation, ensuring the benefits of half-hourly settlement are passed on to the people who matter most: the households and businesses using energy every day. By combining reliable data, intelligent systems, and proven infrastructure, SMS is helping to deliver a fairer, cleaner, and more resilient energy system for the future.