About Half Hourly Insights

Half Hourly Insights is a free tool and set of guides for UK businesses and public sector organisations that want to understand their half-hourly electricity data. It is run by Kinetic Energy Consulting, whose Managing Director is Paul Johnston.

Paul Johnston

Managing Director, Kinetic Energy Consulting

Paul has spent his career in the UK energy market. He has worked for some of the largest energy suppliers in the country and with private-equity-backed start-ups building new energy businesses.

Working at that scale showed him how much useful information the industry collects about how businesses use electricity, and how little of it reaches the people who could act on it. Working with start-ups showed him how much can change when that information is put in front of the right person in a form they can use.

He set up Half Hourly Insights to close that gap, and writes and reviews the guides on this site.

Contact Paul

Why the analyser is free

Most organisations already have half-hourly electricity data. Their supplier records it every half hour, and it is used for billing. It rarely reaches the facilities manager, the bursar or the finance director, who are the people who could use it to cut waste.

We built the analyser so anyone can load that data and, within a minute, see when their buildings use electricity, what runs while they are closed and what that costs. Often the first changes cost nothing: a timer, a heating schedule, a holiday calendar.

It is free because that is the most useful way to start. Some organisations will act on the results themselves, and that is fine. Others will want help going further, and that is the work Kinetic Energy Consulting does. There is no sign-up and no obligation. Because the analysis runs in your web browser, we never see your data unless you choose to send it to us.

How we write the guides

• Every figure has a source. Guides cite the primary source, such as Ofgem, the government, the National Energy System Operator or the supplier concerned, with a date.
• Examples are labelled. Our worked examples use made-up buildings and say so. Every figure in them is what the analyser actually reports.
• Costs are not savings. We show the cost of a pattern of use, not a promised saving, and say when findings overlap.
• Pages are dated. Each guide shows when it was last updated. Rates and prices are reviewed every April.
• Corrections are welcome. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.