Understanding half-hourly data and why it matters for your energy costs

If your building has a maximum demand of more than 100kW, you're almost certainly on a half-hourly (HH) metered electricity supply. That means your meter records consumption in 48 half-hourly intervals every day: 17,520 data points per year.

Most organisations collect and use none of them.

What half-hourly data tells you

A monthly meter read tells you total consumption. A half-hourly profile tells you when you consumed, and that's where the insights are.

Peak demand: HH data reveals your maximum demand profile. If you're consistently hitting high peaks at certain times, you're likely paying higher capacity charges than you need to. Shifting load away from peak periods can reduce these charges significantly.

Anomalies and waste: A spike at 2am on a Sunday morning shows something is running that shouldn't be. A consistent high baseline after close of business suggests equipment isn't being switched off. These patterns are invisible in monthly reads.

Tariff validation: Time-of-use tariffs charge different rates for different periods. Without HH data, you can't verify whether the supplier has applied the correct rates to the correct intervals. With HH data, the check is straightforward.

Why most organisations don't use it

Three reasons:

1. The data is hard to get. HH data is technically available from your supplier, but the access mechanism varies and the format is inconsistent across suppliers.
2. The volume is daunting. 17,520 rows per year, per meter. Without the right tools, analysing HH data manually is impractical.
3. The insight isn't surfaced automatically. Even if you have the data, turning it into actionable insight requires analysis that most property teams don't have time to do.

What changes when you use it

Etainabl collects HH data automatically from meters via AMR and supplier API connections, and surfaces the insights you actually need:

• Load profile charts showing when you consume, not just how much
• Anomaly detection with automatic alerts for out-of-hours spikes
• Demand analysis to identify opportunities to reduce capacity charges
• Tariff validation comparing actual consumption intervals against charged intervals

The result is bill validation with real teeth, plus the consumption insight that makes energy procurement, budget setting, and net-zero planning genuinely reliable.

Getting started

If you're not sure whether your sites are HH metered, we can check. If they are and you're not collecting the data, that's the first thing to fix. Talk to us about data collection and we'll walk you through the options.