If your business has a half-hourly electricity meter, you have access to a hive of useful cost-saving insights; but are you using that data to your advantage? This blog provides a quick and easy method you can use to unlock the hidden value in your half-hourly energy data.
Analysing your business electricity usage will enable smarter decisions, lower costs, and better control over long-term costs.
What Is Half-Hourly Energy Data?
Half-hourly metering records your electricity usage every 30 minutes, providing 48 data points a day. It’s mandatory for larger businesses and increasingly common for SMEs looking to better manage their energy.
This level of detail gives you a clear, real-time picture of how, when, and where your energy is being used; but only if you know how to interpret it.
How ChatGPT Can Help Analyse Half-Hourly Usage
AI models like ChatGPT can quickly process large volumes of half-hourly data, highlighting patterns that might be costing your business money. For example, ChatGPT can:
- Identify peak usage times and advise if tasks can be shifted to cheaper time periods
- Flag excessive overnight or weekend energy use when your site should be idle
- Detect anomalies or spikes in usage that could indicate equipment faults or operational inefficiencies
- Break down your energy usage into baseload, operational load, and peak demand — giving you total visibility
Real-World Business Insights from Half-Hourly Data
Here are just a few examples of what ChatGPT can spot from your data:
“Your base load consumption overnight is 40% of daily usage. This suggests equipment is running when it shouldn’t be.”
“You consistently hit peak demand between 2pm–4pm. Could some high-load tasks be rescheduled to off-peak hours?”
“There’s a usage spike every Saturday despite your business being closed — check timers, lighting, or HVAC systems.”
With these types of insight, you can take immediate action to reduce waste and bring down your energy bills.
How to Upload and Use Half-Hourly Energy Data with ChatGPT
If you want to get meaningful insights from your energy data, you’ll first need to format it correctly and share it with ChatGPT. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Download Your Half-Hourly Data
Most business energy suppliers will allow you to download half-hourly usage data via your online account or by request. You’ll usually receive the data as a CSV file.
Organise this into a format suitable for ChatGPT, with colums in your CSV showing dates, 30 minute time slots and KWh used in each period.
Download our free template to help you conduct this task, here:
Tip: Try to get at least 30 days of data for more meaningful patterns.
Step 2: Upload the Data to ChatGPT
Once you have your CSV file:
- Log in to ChatGPT. You will need access to GPT4 “Turbo”, which is the pro account.
- Start a new conversation
- Click the paperclip icon to upload your CSV file
Use a prompt, such as:
“This is my half-hourly electricity usage for March. Can you analyse it and tell me when my energy usage peaks, and where I might be able to reduce consumption?”
ChatGPT will then read your data and return insights within seconds — including charts, summaries, and action points.
What Happens with My Data?
Uploaded files are used only within your session and are not stored or used to train future AI models. That means your data stays private and secure. Still, avoid including sensitive or personal information — just usage figures and timestamps are all ChatGPT needs. Anonymising data sent is always best practice when using LLMs.
Why This Matters for Your Business
Understanding your half-hourly energy profile is crucial if you want to minimise cost and maximise efficiency. It will also help you choose an appropriate tariff type when you renegotiate your next energy contract.
This will help you pinpoint peak demand charges. Some suppliers penalise high usage at peak times and if you can avoid them you can make major savings.
It is also good support for your Net Zero strategy. The better picture you have of your energy usage, the better strategic decisions you can make. You can even ask ChatGPT to visualise the data in different ways to be used in presentations and reports, allowing you to communicate recommendations effectively and convincingly.
Prefer Support From A Human Expert?
At Procure Smart, we don’t just compare and switch business contracts, we help you make data-driven decisions based on your actual usage and apply tried and tested energy strategies we’ve utilised with thousands of business customers.
Our energy experts can:
- Analyse your half-hourly data for free
- Match you to the most cost-effective tariff based on your demand profile
- Support you in reducing unnecessary energy use and improving efficiency
Ready to unlock savings hidden in your half-hourly data?
Contact us today for a free consultation or business energy quote. Let’s turn your data into smarter decisions and lower costs.
