Wholesalers and retailers can now share data from smart meters easily and efficiently thanks to a new, central IT hub.

Smart water meters are at the forefront of water wholesalers’ efforts to improve water efficiency to help ensure they can meet the growing demand for water.

Wholesalers are rolling out more than 10 million smart meters in England and Wales in the current Asset Management Period (AMP), including for nearly 800,000 businesses. By 2030 nearly two thirds (66 per cent) of businesses are due to have a smart meter.

Unlike traditional water meters, which are typically read manually twice a year, smart meters take reads every hour – or every 15 minutes – and transmit them automatically via a data network.

As well as providing the twice-yearly snapshot of customers’ usage for billing purposes, smart meters’ granular data has enormous potential benefits for wholesalers, retailers and business customers.

Wholesalers can use the data from smart meters to find and fix leaks more quickly, while retailers can analyse customers’ usage patterns to identify spikes in consumption and develop water efficiency measures or new tariffs. For business customers, smart metering should mean timely and accurate bills.

To realise these benefits in the retail business market, the data needs to be shared between water wholesalers, which own the smart meters and collect the data they generate, and retailers.

In its National Metering Strategy, the Strategic Panel noted the lack of an agreed method for sharing meter reads and the risks of having multiple systems and processes in the market in terms of increased cost and complexity, and asked MOSL to work with the

Metering Committee to propose a solution that was in line with strategic objectives set by Panel

Following an extensive selection process, CGI was appointed delivery partner for the hub in July 2025.

Yesterday marked the launch of the first phase of the solution – a central, dedicated data sharing hub. From now on, wholesalers can enter actual smart meter reads into the hub, while retailers can view, extract and use their customers’ smart meter data.

The hub supports multiple file formats for both inputting and extracting data. Two interfaces are provided: a web portal for submitting, viewing and amending lower volumes of data, and a system-to-system interface for higher volumes of data.

Trading parties’ use of the hub is optional during Phase 1. However, its use will become mandatory when Phase 2 goes live in December 2026, when the hub will be connected to the Central Market Operating System to allow meter reads to be submitted into CMOS automatically for billing and settlement.

Commenting on the launch, Trisha McAuley, Chair of the Strategic Panel, said:

“Smart metering has enormous potential benefits for wholesalers, retailers and customers – but only if trading parties can share meter read data easily, efficiently and consistently.

“I’m delighted that there is now a single, central system to facilitate sharing smart meter reads and that is has been delivered in the first year of the current Asset Management Period, as wholesalers ramp up their rollout of smart metering.”

MOSL Chief Information Officer Simon Powell added:

“This is an exciting first step for the smart meter read hub. We look forward to trading parties beginning to upload and extract live data in the coming days as they begin considering what the hub means for their businesses and the services they provide.”