"The Company Energy Picture"
Data Jigsaw is an independent Meter Operator and Data Collector covering over 250,000 metering points — more than 5% of the entire UK's business electricity consumption. We manage the meter. We collect the data. We provision it to your supplier. One fixed monthly cost. No surprises.
"Your energy supplier almost certainly appointed themselves as your Meter Operator and Data Collector. That means you have no control over what those costs are — and you're almost certainly paying more than you need to."
Most energy suppliers charge separately for meter operation and data collection — or bundle opaque charges into your bill with no breakdown. Data Jigsaw charges one fixed monthly direct debit that covers everything required for full MOP and DC compliance.
Half Hourly metering is a chain of distinct licensed activities. Data Jigsaw occupies three of the four positions in that chain — owning the meter, contracting its maintenance, and managing data collection and provisioning — all under one agreement.
Our web tool interface gives clients direct visibility of their consumption data — how, when, and where power is used. The intelligence your supplier has always had access to, now available to you.
Historically, the energy supplier holding your supply contract has always appointed themselves as your Meter Operator and Data Collector. This practice means most businesses have little or no visibility of what those services actually cost, and no mechanism to challenge or reduce them. Data Jigsaw changed that.
Important: Data Jigsaw has no affiliation with any energy supplier. We are fully compliant and supplier-agnostic — meaning your choice of energy supplier is completely unrestricted. Switching supplier does not affect your MOP or DC arrangement with us, and never has.
The basics are straightforward. The regulatory background — P272, DCP161, DCP228, Elexon compliance — is where it gets more involved. Click any section to read the full detail.
The Ofgem regulatory change that forced profile class 05–08 meters into Half Hourly settlement — and what it means for your metering costs.
Read more ↓P272 is the regulatory modification introduced by Ofgem that requires all electricity meters in profile classes 05, 06, 07, and 08 to migrate to Half Hourly settlement. If your electricity MPAN shows a profile class of 05, 06, 07, or 08 in the top line, P272 applies to your site.
The purpose of P272 was straightforward: Ofgem concluded that making Half Hourly data available for this class of sites would improve consumption intelligence across the grid, enabling suppliers to purchase power with greater accuracy and potentially reducing costs for businesses in this sector.
Before P272, maximum demand meters operated under a simpler billing structure. P272 compliance introduced two new costs that confused many businesses: the meter operator charge, and the data collection charge. Energy suppliers began billing for these in different ways — some annually, some monthly, some embedded in the unit rate — making comparison almost impossible.
Data Jigsaw identified this confusion as an opportunity to offer clarity. By taking the MOP and DC services outside of the supplier relationship entirely and charging a single, fixed, all-inclusive monthly fee, the true cost becomes visible — and consistently lower than what suppliers charge for the equivalent service.
For most affected sites, the P272 migration process is now complete. However, the metering cost structure it created is permanent — and the case for independent MOP and DC services is as strong as it was when P272 was first implemented. If your site migrated to HH settlement and you have not reviewed your MOP and DC costs since, the review is worth doing.
The licensed roles in the Half Hourly data chain, what each one does, and why data quality has a direct financial consequence for your bill.
Read more ↓Half Hourly metering involves four distinct licensed roles: the Meter Asset Manager (MAM), the Meter Operator (MOP), the Data Collector (DC), and the Data Aggregator (DA). Each role has specific obligations under the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) and the associated Meter Operation Code of Practice (COP).
The Meter Operator is responsible for the physical meter — installation, maintenance, calibration, and replacement. COP 3, 5, and 10 define the technical standards that meter operation must meet for different classes of metering equipment. IMSERV, contracted by Data Jigsaw, holds full MOP accreditation and operates to these standards across our portfolio.
The Data Collector retrieves the 48 half-hourly readings from each meter, validates them, and passes them to the Data Aggregator, who in turn submits them through the settlement system to the supplier and to Elexon. Where readings are missing or invalid, the DC must apply approved substitution methods under the BSC. Substituted data — if not identified and corrected — can result in your bill reflecting consumption that does not accurately represent your actual use.
Every settlement period must have a valid value. A meter communication failure, a modem fault, or a data validation error means the DC substitutes an estimated value in its place. If that substitution is never challenged, it becomes the basis of your charge. Robust MOP and DC management — of the kind IMSERV provides under our contract — reduces the frequency of substitutions and manages them correctly when they occur.
The follow-on regulation to P272 that introduced significant excess capacity penalties for Half Hourly metered sites that exceed their agreed available capacity.
Read more ↓DCP161 is the Distribution Connection and Use of System Agreement (DCUSA) change introduced by Ofgem following P272. In force from April 2018, it introduced excess capacity penalty charges for Half Hourly electricity supplies that regularly exceed their assigned available capacity.
Before DCP161, if a site exceeded its available capacity, the supplier simply charged for the excess kVA at the standard available capacity rate. There was no penalty beyond the standard charge, and as a result there was little financial incentive for businesses or their advisors to actively review and manage capacity levels.
DCP161 introduced an excess capacity penalty rate that can be up to three times higher than the standard capacity rate. The precise rate varies by region and voltage level. For sites that regularly exceed their agreed capacity, this change can increase overall electricity costs by 1–2% or more. The impact is highest in areas where network demand for capacity is greatest.
Understanding your available capacity and maximum demand levels is now more financially significant than it was before DCP161. Sites moving from NHH to HH settlement under P272 were particularly at risk if they had not previously had sight of their capacity data — which, by definition, NHH meters did not provide. HH data from Data Jigsaw gives you the consumption and demand intelligence to identify capacity risk and manage it before excess charges accumulate.
If you have a supply that is incurring excess capacity charges, full site capacity data can be retrieved via Data Jigsaw's services — and the agreed capacity can then be reviewed for resetting at the appropriate level.
The distribution charging change that restructured Red, Amber, and Green DUoS bands — and what it means for load management strategies.
Read more ↓DCP228 is the Distribution Use of System change introduced under the Common Distribution Charging Methodology (CDCM). It restructures how Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) recover the costs they incur at different times of day — specifically, it rebalances the cost differential between Red band (peak) and Green band (off-peak) DUoS charges.
Prior to DCP228, businesses using electricity during Red time band periods — typically 4pm to 7pm on weekdays in winter — were charged at rates significantly higher than Amber or Green periods. DCP228 lowers Red band charges and slightly raises Amber and Green band charges, in effect flattening the charging structure to more accurately reflect how DNOs actually incur their network costs.
DCP228 has a direct effect on businesses that have invested in load management systems designed to shift consumption away from Red band periods. Because the price differential between Red and Green bands is reduced, the financial benefit of peak avoidance is also reduced. Businesses with existing load management contracts should reassess whether the savings they were projected to achieve are still achievable under the new structure.
Importantly, DCP228 also affects Triad avoidance revenue for businesses in demand-side response programmes, since Triad charges form part of the overall DUoS cost structure that DCP228 is reshaping. The Half Hourly data available through Data Jigsaw provides the granular consumption visibility needed to model the impact of these changes on your specific site.
Data Jigsaw contracts IMSERV exclusively for meter operation, data collection, and data aggregation services across our entire portfolio. IMSERV's scale and compliance infrastructure is what makes Data Jigsaw's service quality possible at the price point we offer.
IMSERV is the UK's largest independent provider of MOP and DC services, operating to full Elexon compliance across electricity and gas for commercial and industrial clients. Under Data Jigsaw's contract, IMSERV handles physical meter maintenance and attendance, data collection via GSM and fixed line infrastructure, data validation and substitution management, and provisioning to suppliers through industry data flow connections. Their end-to-end technical capability, combined with experienced field engineers and extensive industry accreditation, is the operational backbone of the Data Jigsaw service.
Working with Better Connected? If your site has a Half Hourly meter we can confirm whether it sits within the Data Jigsaw portfolio, explain exactly what metering charges appear on your bill and whether they are correctly stated, and request your historical HH consumption data for analysis. Ask us — it starts with a conversation.