Site and meter hierarchy
Every site and its meter points held as a structured hierarchy with current supplier, contract terms and settlement classification, kept accurate through defined change processes rather than ad hoc spreadsheet edits.
Energy and utilities
Portfolio management platform
An organisation managing energy across dozens or hundreds of sites is running a procurement, budgeting and compliance operation that spreadsheets were never designed to carry. Contract renewal dates live in one workbook, consumption data sits in portal exports from three suppliers, budget forecasts are built by whoever last updated the master spreadsheet, and the Net Zero or SECR report gets assembled once a year by tracing figures back through all of it.
We build portfolio management platforms that hold the site and meter hierarchy as a structured record, track renewal dates and procurement type per meter point, forecast budget against consumption and market data, and produce the consumption and emissions data an organisation needs for statutory and voluntary reporting directly from the same underlying data.
The workflow this replaces
The portfolio tracking process a facilities or procurement team runs by hand today
Before a dedicated platform is built, a typical multi-site organisation manages its energy portfolio something like this, repeated across every site and every renewal cycle.
Step 01
A master spreadsheet holds the site and meter list
Sites, their meter points, current suppliers and contract end dates are held in a spreadsheet that someone updates when a change is reported, which means it drifts out of date whenever a site closes, a new site opens, or a meter is replaced without the change being logged back to the sheet.
Step 02
Renewal dates are tracked against a calendar, not automatically
Someone reviews the spreadsheet periodically to identify contracts approaching their end date, and the accuracy of this process depends entirely on how recently the sheet was updated and how consistently the review happens.
Step 03
Consumption data is pulled from separate supplier portals
Each supplier's portal is logged into separately to download consumption reports, which are then combined manually — often by pasting figures into a master workbook — to get a portfolio-wide view of usage, a process that does not scale cleanly past a handful of suppliers.
Step 04
Budget forecasts are built from last year's numbers
Forecasts for the coming year are typically built by applying an assumed inflation or rate change to last year's actual spend, because building a forecast from live market pricing and site-level consumption forecasts by hand is more work than most teams have time for.
Step 05
Procurement decisions are made without a full portfolio view
Decisions about whether to renew a site on a fixed contract or move it to a flexible purchasing arrangement are made site by site, or in batches when several renewals happen to fall together, rather than as part of an ongoing portfolio-wide procurement strategy.
Step 06
Reporting is assembled once a year under time pressure
SECR or Net Zero reporting is compiled annually by gathering consumption data from the various sources, applying emission conversion factors, and checking the arithmetic, a process that takes weeks precisely because the underlying data was never held in one structured place.
This process works, in the sense that most organisations produce a report and do not miss every renewal. What it does not do reliably is give anyone a current, portfolio-wide view of contract exposure, spend and consumption on any given day, which is the gap a portfolio platform is built to close.
What we build
Modules in a typical portfolio management build
Contract renewal calendars
Renewal dates tracked automatically per meter point with configurable alert windows, so upcoming renewals across the whole estate are visible as a prioritised list rather than requiring a periodic spreadsheet review.
Flexible vs fixed procurement tracking
Procurement type and rate structure recorded per meter point, so a portfolio view can show blended cost exposure across sites bought on different bases without treating the estate as uniformly priced.
Budget forecasting
Forecasts built from site-level consumption history combined with current or indicative forward market pricing, giving a working budget projection ahead of renewals rather than an extrapolation of last year's spend.
Consumption analytics
Portfolio-wide and site-level consumption trends, anomaly flagging for unexpected usage changes, and comparison against expected consumption bands, built from ingested supplier and settlement data.
Elexon and settlement data integration
Settlement and market data feeds ingested to provide measured or estimated consumption figures independent of supplier-reported invoicing, used to reconcile actual portfolio usage.
Net Zero and SECR reporting
Consumption data structured with the site, meter and time granularity needed to apply emission conversion factors and produce reporting outputs aligned to SECR and voluntary Net Zero disclosure requirements.
Procurement decision support
Portfolio-wide views combining renewal timing, current procurement mix and budget exposure, to support decisions on which sites to move between fixed and flexible arrangements and when.
Integrations
Named systems and interfaces
Metering and market data
ECOESXoserveElexon settlement dataMPAN core and top lineMPRN
Supplier connectivity
supplier consumption data feedssupplier portalshalf-hourly data collectors
Market pricing
forward curve/market pricing feedswholesale price reference data
Finance and reporting
XeroSageSAPPower BI
Identity
Microsoft Entra IDrole-based access control
Where an organisation already holds site and asset data in a facilities management or ERP system, we integrate the portfolio platform against it rather than duplicating a site register that already exists.
Data and compliance
Requirements written into the build
- Site and meter hierarchy
- Site, meter point and contract held as linked records, with MPAN core and top line or MPRN as the stable identifier for each meter point regardless of supplier changes over time.
- Procurement type
- Fixed or flexible/basket purchasing recorded per meter point, alongside the specific rate structure and any price review points that apply within a flexible arrangement.
- Settlement classification
- Half-hourly (HH) or non-half-hourly (NHH) status per meter point, determining which consumption data source and forecasting approach applies.
- Emission conversion factors
- Factors applied to consumption data to produce reportable emissions figures, versioned by reporting year to keep historical reports consistent with the factors in force at the time. Confirm current conversion factor sources with your sustainability adviser.
- Renewal alert windows
- Configurable per contract length and site importance, so high-value or hard-to-replace sites can be flagged further ahead of their contract end date than smaller sites.
- Reporting boundary
- The organisational and site scope used for SECR or Net Zero reporting, defined once and applied consistently rather than re-determined manually each reporting cycle.
Architecture note
How the system is put together
The site and meter hierarchy is the structural backbone of the platform: contracts, consumption, procurement type and reporting all attach at meter point level and roll up through site to portfolio, which is what makes a portfolio-wide view a query rather than a manual aggregation.
Market and settlement data ingestion runs as a separate pipeline from consumption reporting, because forward pricing and settlement data update on different schedules and from different sources, and budget forecasting needs both without either blocking on the other.
Reporting outputs for SECR and Net Zero are generated from the same consumption and hierarchy data used for operational reporting, with conversion factors applied as a versioned layer, so a report produced this year and one produced next year against the same historical data remain reconcilable.
Renewal alerting and procurement decision support are built as views over the core data rather than as separate systems, so a change to a contract or a site's classification is reflected everywhere it matters without a manual re-sync.
Timeline
Build phases in weeks
Discovery
Weeks 1-3
Review of current site and meter records, data quality assessment, supplier and market data sources available, and reporting requirements.
Hierarchy and data migration
Weeks 4-7
Site and meter hierarchy design, migration from existing spreadsheets or facilities systems, and validation of MPAN and MPRN records.
Renewal and procurement tracking
Weeks 8-11
Renewal calendar, alert configuration, and procurement type tracking across the portfolio.
Consumption and market data integration
Weeks 12-16
Ingestion of supplier consumption data, Elexon settlement data, and market pricing feeds, plus consumption analytics views.
Budget forecasting and reporting
Weeks 17-20
Budget forecasting models and the SECR/Net Zero reporting outputs, built against the finalised data structure.
Parallel run and go-live
Weeks 21-24
Running the platform alongside existing spreadsheet processes to validate figures, followed by cutover and a stabilisation period.
Indicative cost
Budget bands, not quotes
- Discovery and scoping
- £15,000 to £30,000, credited against the build.
- Core hierarchy, renewal calendar and consumption tracking
- £180,000 to £300,000.
- Full platform including budget forecasting and SECR/Net Zero reporting
- £300,000 to £520,000.
- Data migration from existing spreadsheets or facilities systems
- £20,000 to £60,000 depending on data quality and site count.
- Managed run
- Monthly retainer against an agreed service level, priced after go-live scope is confirmed.
Bands assume a portfolio in the low hundreds of sites. An estate spanning multiple business units with separate reporting boundaries typically sits at the upper end.
Where this sits
Related pages
Questions
Frequently asked
How does the platform handle a customer with sites on both flexible and fixed procurement?
Each meter point carries its own procurement type, contract terms and rate structure, so a portfolio view can show a blended cost position across sites bought on fixed contracts and sites bought under a flexible or basket purchasing arrangement, without treating the whole estate as if it were priced the same way.
Can the system forecast budget impact of an upcoming renewal before it happens?
Yes, within the limits of the market data available. Budget forecasting combines a site's historical consumption pattern with current or indicative forward market prices, so a renewal due in six months can be modelled against a range of likely rate outcomes rather than left as an unknown until the quote arrives.
What does Elexon and settlement data actually add to a portfolio platform?
Settlement data from Elexon and the wider market provides the actual measured or estimated consumption figures used to calculate a site's costs and its contribution to imbalance and other settlement-driven charges, which is more reliable than relying solely on supplier-reported consumption when reconciling a portfolio's true usage.
Is SECR and Net Zero reporting built in or does it need separate software?
We build the consumption and emissions data structure needed to produce SECR and Net Zero reporting directly from the portfolio platform, using the conversion factors and reporting boundaries relevant to the organisation. Confirm current SECR reporting thresholds and applicable emission conversion factors with your compliance or sustainability adviser.
How many sites and meter points does this make sense for?
The case for a dedicated portfolio platform builds as soon as spreadsheet-based tracking of contract renewals and consumption across sites starts producing missed renewal windows or unreliable budget figures, which typically happens somewhere between fifty and a few hundred meter points depending on how varied the estate is.
Tell us what your systems are doing wrong.
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