New regulator, the Office for Product Safety & Standards, will present at the seminars to share the latest legislation updates. Enforcement manager, Mili Malik, will explain changes to the Duty of Notification process. This affects all heat suppliers, who are required to re-submit their heat scheme details every four years, with 2019 being the four-year compliance anniversary for many heat networks.

Mili Malik will also provide an update on the requirement to fit final customer meters to existing un-metered buildings, which has been delayed due to issues with the feasibility tool for determining the viability of retrofitting meters to these properties.

Colin Hall, partner for Winckworth Sherwood, will brief heat scheme owners from housing associations, local authorities and the private development market on the steps they must take to ensure full compliance with the metering and billing regulations. He will look at potential improvements to the regulations and their interface with the likely regulatory regime.

Ian Allan, head of market strategy for Switch2, will share best practice on how heat network operators are rising to the compliance challenge and using game changing new digital technologies to transform their heat metering and billing strategies. He will explain how smart heat metering is helping to supply advanced data analytics to achieve full real-time visibility of heat network performance.

This is leading to huge efficiency improvements and enhancing customer service for residents, leading to impressive cost and carbon savings.

The Heat Network Billing and Metering Regulations make it mandatory to fit final customer meters and point of entry meters in new build heat network developments and most major refurbishment projects. In addition, customers must be billed using actual meter readings, rather than estimates, and billing information must be transparent and informative.