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Abby_OVO
Community Manager
Abby_OVO
Community Manager
August 28, 2024
News

There’s an industry wide change coming to meter reading consent, and we want to share the details with you

  • August 28, 2024
  • 22 replies
  • 1022 views
There’s an industry wide change coming to meter reading consent, and we want to share the details with you

Updated on 11/06/26 by Ben_OVO

 

Market Wide Half-Hourly Settlements (MHHS), what is it?

 

‘Market Wide Half-Hourly Settlements (MHHS) is a nationwide change, backed by OFGEM, to the way energy companies can use customer smart meter data to make buying and selling energy more accurate.

 

Under the new industry model, we’ll be able to buy and sell energy for our customers much more accurately. We’ll move away from estimating what we need and instead, we’ll base our buying on half hourly data, collected from 30 million homes. 

 

From 24 September 2025, the UK energy industry will begin a major transformation called Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS). This initiative aims to settle all electricity consumption on a half-hourly basis, moving away from the current mix of half-hourly and non-half-hourly settlement. This is being completed in waves, and OVO won't be implementing the change until the 2nd wave around July 2026.

 

 

What are the benefits?

 

  • Helping to ease pressure on the national grid, preventing power outages
  • To help us meet our Plan Zero commitments
  • Forecasting your usage better, meeting your energy needs better and limiting energy waste
  • Contributing to  the national scheme to fight climate change
  • May help to save costs

 

 

How to view and update your meter sends readings

 

  1. On home screen click the person icon
  2. Click 'how often meter reads send'
  3. You can select between daily and half-hourly

 

As well as being able to view your preference online and in app, it’ll also be included in your monthly statement.

 

If we’ve written to you about your consent updating automatically, you’ll get a notice period to update this to daily if you’re eligible. If we don’t hear from you, the change will default to half-hourly. 

 

If we’ve got in touch by email your notice period will be 7 days, and 10 days if we got in touch by post.

 

If you miss the notice period or want to change your preference later down the line, you can do this at any time via the online account and app as detailed above, or reach out to the Support Team.

 

 

Will my data be safe? 

 

Yes. All data collected, stored and  used will be in full compliance with GDPR. Your data will only be used if we have consent to do so. For more on how we use your data, check out our Privacy Policy.

 

For more information, check out the dedicated MHHS FAQs page.

    22 replies

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    W
    Newcomer
    wetandwindy
    Newcomer
    October 9, 2024

    The meter transmits a heartbeat every 10 seconds anyway regardless of those settings, so you’re not actually reducing the radio emissions by doing that - it makes no difference to electricity consumption either. While the readings are taken every 30 minutes, they are only sent back to the Supplier once a day.

    The market trades on a half-hourly basis, so it makes sense the data matches this too.

    As for health effects? They have never been proven. Every study has basically come back negative despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it.

    In fact, I sleep less than 1m from a Ubiquiti UniFi nanoHD every night and have done so for about two years now - I’ve not suffered at all. Even with ALL of this kit running 24/7/365 in my flat!

     

    And all of my Access Points are running at almost the maximum Transmission Power legally permitted in the UK by Ofcom - 30dBm - and is double the power of basically any ISP router ever dished out. Yet I’m still totally fine despite all the Wi-Fi being blasted at me from close proximity as I’m never more than 5m from an AP. If my Ubiquiti UniFi kit can’t kill me, then neither can Smart Meters nor mobile phones.

     

    Well, there is a different between being killed and being slowly cooked over a number of decades, you might look like a lobster in 20 years 😄. However, That was not my main concern. Many people do however report headaches from using mobile phones, but as Jeffers has said in the reply, the amount of data the smart meter transmits is positively tiny in comparison 👍🏿 Still it is interesting to know how often it polls as a matter of interest, so thanks for explaining that and the other ways in which this works.

    I think its important to know more about the technology and your comment is very helpful in this regard.

     

    Excellent, thanks for the information. Yes i had assumed there was more traffic flow with these devices and that they would poll very often. The more you learn 😀

     

    Thanks Guys

     

    *edit i forgot to add. When you take into consideration the things you both mention. the option might actually cause more confusion than it helps.

    Firedog
    Super User
    FiredogSuper User
    Super User
    October 9, 2024

    It seems odd to offer a 1 day or 1 month option at all ? Why is the option there, it might actually cause more confusion than it helps.
      

    You will have realized that this set of options conflates two distinct processes. Sadly, they’ve been cobbled together in many places and lumped under a generic term ‘readings’. 

    There are three choices for a ‘reading’ schedule: half-hourly, daily or monthly. This is what I think they involve:
     

    Selected
    schedule      		 What it prescribes
    for usage data    		 What it prescribes
    for meter readings
    Half-hourly 48 quantities each day 1 reading each day
    Daily None 1 reading each day
    Monthly None 1 reading each month

     

    The first is the most useful for everyone concerned. The second makes live billing really helpful, with a new accurate balance each day so there’s no doubt how the account is doing. You only have to subtract yesterday’s reading from today’s to get the daily usage, which will be very close to the sum of the 48 Hh figures*. The third is the minimum required for a monthly billing schedule, which is the only one available to OVO customers.

    Ofgem have laid down the law about this, so that Hh data is the default for new customers/meters. 

     

    *   My own records have never seen a difference of more than ±0.001kWh for any single day or over a longer recent period (recent because I only looked back a couple of months).

     

    Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
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