Providing insights for industry research

Together with Market Operators like MOSL in addition to licenced retailers and wholesalers, Occutrace are taking on the challenge of exploring typical industry problems and delivering valuable knowledge for all market participants.

We are experts in resolving key problems that water and other utility companies need to address

What’s the challenge?

The competitive retail water market in England opened in April 2017, allowing more than 1.2 million non-household customers such as commercial and industrial businesses, charities and public sector organisations to choose their provider for water and wastewater services. This means that non-household customers are now able to shop around and negotiate improved terms and conditions for their water services in the market. Some customers are even able to self-supply and serve as their own water services retailer, dealing directly with wholesalers.

Retailers and wholesalers upload data on meter reads, tariffs and customer data – including when they switch retailer to the central IT system, CMOS (Central Market Operating System). Operated and maintained by the industry governing body – MOSL (Market Operator Services Limited), CMOS manages over 90,000 transactions every day. Issues with inaccurate or incomplete data held within CMOS can have a significant impact on retailers and wholesalers and are a contributing factor to inaccurate customer bills and levels of customer satisfaction.

Long unread meters, broken meters, data lacking accuracy and a range of other grey areas in the market information are all long standing issues that require to be addressed. The status of the assets needs to be verified and old data must be replaced by the updated information, eventually.

We can investigate these issues in depth, facilitated by the Occutrace mix of technology and field resource. With an agenda to help deliver high quality information to the industry within the Market Improvement Fund established by MOSL, we are perfectly positioned to do so by utilising our expert knowledge and resources.

Project Looking Glass.

MIF 1.0 sponsored by MOSL.

This project involves understanding the root causes of long unread meters (LUMs) in the market. This knowledge could help trading parties better understand why meters are not being read across the country and what they can do about it.

By visiting a cross-section of external Long Unread Meters (LUMs) across England, this project aims to provide MOSL with accurate data on the root causes of LUMs to establish the level of accuracy currently in the market.

Target of 2,400 site visits were to be attempted across a sample of LUMs with external meters. All of the 2,400 site visits are allocated to each wholesale area in proportion to the total LUM population. Occutrace team visited a random selection of LUMs within each wholesale area, up to the allocated number.

Download Full Report

Project No Flow.

MIF 2.0 Delivery Partner to Wave Utilities.

Project No Flow (initially known as ‘Meter Condition Assessment’) aims to assess the condition of broken meters across the water market by investigating a sample of these meters. On completion, a source of evidential data will be built to highlight the number of broken meters, identify any patterns and understand at which point a meter is likely to fail.

This project was the investigation that was to provide the evidence required to inform the design of market improvements which benefited all parties.

There are 147,603 (11%) meters in the NHH market showing zero consumption which affects over 113,276 occupied business premises.

A sample of 1,618 supply points with meters showing zero-consumption were visited from October 2022 into mid 2023. The sample incorporated a variety of meter sizes, ages, manufacturers, types and customer segments across all wholesale areas in England.

Download Final Report

Project No one Home.

MIF 3.0 Sponsored by SES Business Water

Project No one Home aims to improve the monitoring of vacant properties across the water market. Reviewing existing and emerging methods and technologies to enable better management of vacant properties.

Highlighting on how these methods and technologies will improve identifying owners/occupiers, the accuracy of data entered into the market and reduce leakage and eligibility of properties in the water market.

A recent project states there is an estimated 16% of properties in the NHH market classified as vacant. Monitoring vacant properties is a difficult challenge for water companies resulting in unaccounted-for consumption, potential leakage and revenue loss impacting wholesalers, retailers, and, ultimately, customers.

Report Coming Soon

What our customers say about Occutrace

It is our ambition to deliver quality service and actionable results to the utility companies, national water retailers and wholesalers and MOSL. Hearing customer feedback about the team and the way we work together is invaluable.