Utilita acquires tech company to provide ‘property snapshot’ for customers

L-R: Harry Smith (Ecofit), Ian Burgess (Procode), Tim Maxwell (Ecofit)

Utilita Energy’s tech arm has acquired a Scottish start-up which will see the supplier access government data to provide tailored support to its customers.

Procode, which provides the technology behind the pay-as-you-go specialist supplier, will use solutions developed by Ecofit to create a ‘snapshot’ of Utilita customers’ properties by collating data from sources such as Energy Performance Certificates, the Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey, as well as the national and devolved governments.

This data will then be used to ascertain which homes are eligible for various decarbonisation and energy efficiency grants including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Great British Insulation Scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, and Home Upgrade Grant.

In total, the solution can analyse more than 70 data points for each home including the date the property was built, the size of the property and what it was built from.

Utilita added that the snapshot also contains highly granular information about which areas of the property are insulated, whether renewable technologies like solar are installed and how many LED light bulbs are in the property.

Combined with households’ smart meter data, this will enable customers to be notified of bespoke retrofit improvements and their potential savings.

Ian Burgess, managing director of Procode, said: “Although the data that people need to make property retrofit decisions is out there, it’s not easy to find or understand.

“The property performance API fast-tracks the entire process and delivers a prescription of measures, their cost and the return on that investment that households can consider against their current energy spend, to see what measures are worthwhile.

“Energy smart data and property profiling has the power to accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation efforts and shave hundreds off energy bills. We are extremely excited to empower Utilita households with access to potentially life-changing information.”

Tim Maxwell, who created the solution alongside Harry Smith, said: “We are really motivated by Procode’s adoption of our API innovation, and excited to know it will impact Utilita households with immediate effect.

“The cost-of-living crisis has accelerated and increased demand for energy efficiency retrofit measures, but the disparate nature of the data that informs the best interventions was a significant barrier to measures being applied. The API solution will speed up the identification and eligibility process and the information provided will help to deliver the best outcomes for the pocket and planet.”