Unify Energy set up as an energy Supplier in 2016 as Bruntwood Energy, to solely manage supply and billing for the Bruntwood commercial property portfolio. After building a unique product offering around supplying and billing metered, sub-metered and non-metered properties, they decided to offer the product to other commercial properties in 2020 and launched Unify Energy as a standalone business. They have built a loyal client base of Business Energy customers with their innovative product that enables businesses and property owners to manage and bill supply for multiple tenants, even without individual meters being installed.
After initially going live with another ‘out of the box’ billing provider and having contracted with an Adaptor provider to meet the DCC requirements for smart metering, Unify Energy discovered that their existing suppliers were not able to meet their specific and complex requirements for billing multiple tenants.
They carried out a competitive review of the UK billing system market, and on meeting with the Seaglass team, were impressed by the technology and flexibility of their products. They also found a real affinity with the team at Seaglass who were able to operate dynamically to flex the product to meet the requirements of the fast-growing supply business.
Seaglass was also able to integrate easily with Unify Energy’s third-party calculations platform, handle input and output of data, and then bill from the calculations provided by the platform. By tying together the specific data capabilities of the third-party software, and the billing, back-end, customer management and data flows within Seaglass, they were able to create a product that could handle the unique complexities of the Unify Energy customer portfolio.
Migration to the new platform was seamless, and the team at Seaglass supported Unify Energy throughout the whole process, working closely together throughout the whole migration process.
Delivering the right Smart Adaptor solution
Whilst Unify Energy had contracted with another provider to supply the mandated DCC adaptor, required to meet the Licence Conditions mandated by Ofgem, the business had never needed to use it as they worked mainly with AMR and other Half Hourly meter types. Recognising that the MHHS programme would require all non-Half Hourly meters to be either smart or AMR and therefore they would have a requirement to use the smart adaptor, they discovered that implementing the adaptor they already had at the low volumes they needed would be hugely expensive. As a trusted partner, they turned to Seaglass to see how they could help to manage the issue. Seaglass identified the opportunity to offer a shared resource provider service that could provide a cost-effective solution for low volumes of smart meters – servicing smaller suppliers that found the pricing structures of the more established providers prohibitive, but that required an Adaptor to meet regulatory requirements.
Throughout the process of connecting to the DCC Gateway, Seaglass supported Unify Energy and went over and above to support the business to meet the regulatory requirements placed on them by Ofgem. The team were working up to Christmas Day to ensure the required number of meters were installed successfully.
Emma Carter, Compliance and Project Manager at Unify Energy, said;
“I cannot speak highly enough of the Seaglass product and the support the team has given our business. They really have been fantastic throughout – willingly sharing their knowledge and expertise to help us meet the regulatory requirements of the DCC.
We work with a lot of technology companies, but Seaglass’ ability to listen and understand our requirements is second to none. They understand our business to the extent that they are able to specify the right solutions for us with minimum back and forth, and they are incredibly communicative at every stage of the process. This sets them apart from other providers.”