P272 was one of the biggest changes to the UK’s commercial electricity market since the deregulation of the electricity industry began in 1989.
P272 was legislation introduced by Ofgem that changed the way certain businesses were metered and billed for electricity. Affected businesses had to migrate to half-hourly meters so that their consumption could be recorded in thirty-minute blocks.
Previously, electricity suppliers often billed commercial customers based on estimates of usage over an extended billing period. The new half-hourly ‘settlement’ bought near real-time data to the market with potentially huge benefits. P272 is intended to help move the UK to a smarter, more energy-efficient economy.