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Load Profile
Key takeaways
A load profile is a standardised pattern (“shape”) of electricity use across the day and year for a typical group of customers.
It’s used to estimate how consumption is spread across half-hourly periods when actual half-hourly data isn’t available.
What is a load profile?
A load profile is a model of how electricity is typically used over time. It doesn’t tell you exactly what your site used at 10:30am. Instead, it provides a realistic “shape” that can be applied to your total consumption so the industry can allocate that consumption across half-hourly settlement periods.
This matters because electricity settlement works in half-hour blocks. If a site isn’t settled using actual half-hourly readings, the system still needs a best-fit way to split its usage across those half-hours. Load profiles are the method used to do that.
Why load profiles exist
Not every meter provides half-hourly readings for settlement. Where half-hourly actuals aren’t available, settlement still needs:
- a way to allocate consumption to each half-hour, and
- a consistent method across suppliers and customers
Load profiles solve that by applying a standard pattern to the energy you used over the billing period.
What this means in practice for businesses
For most SMEs, load profiles are “behind the scenes”. You normally won’t see a “load profile charge” on a bill.
Where it becomes relevant is when you’re looking at things like:
- why your bill is being settled a certain way
- why your supply sits in a particular non-half-hourly category
- why certain customers are moved to half-hourly metering as consumption grows
