Explainer
Your MPRN, or Meter Point Reference Number, is the unique 11 digit number that identifies your electricity connection in Ireland. Here is what it is, where to find it, how it differs from a GPRN and an MPAN, and why suppliers depend on it.
By Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
MPRN stands for Meter Point Reference Number. It is an 11 digit number that identifies one connection point on the electricity network, usually a single property. In the Republic of Ireland every MPRN starts with 10. In Northern Ireland MPRNs are also 11 digits and start with 81.
The number belongs to the connection, not to you or your supplier. It stays the same when you switch supplier or move out, and the next occupant uses the same MPRN.
For customers, the MPRN is what you quote to switch supplier, open an account when you move, report a fault or ask for a smart meter. For the market, it is the key that ties everything together. ESB Networks, as Meter Registration System Operator, uses it to record which supplier serves each connection and to process every change of supplier, and the meter readings and consumption data that suppliers receive for billing and settlement are all keyed to it.
That is why MPRN data quality matters so much to suppliers. A wrong address, a mismatched meter or a registration error at MPRN level turns into estimated bills, failed switches and settlement differences further down the line.
When ESB Networks fits a smart meter, the MPRN stays the same. What changes is the data behind it: half hourly consumption rather than occasional readings, which is what makes smart time of use and dynamic tariffs possible. See smart meters in Ireland.
The 11 digit Meter Point Reference Number that identifies an electricity connection in Ireland or Northern Ireland.
Eleven. In the Republic of Ireland it starts with 10, and in Northern Ireland with 81.
No. It belongs to the connection, so it stays the same when you switch supplier or move house.
An MPRN identifies an electricity connection. A GPRN is the 7 digit reference for a connection to the gas network in the Republic of Ireland.
Related reading: what is an MPAN, smart meters in Ireland, how the Irish electricity market works.
Suppliers who find registration and meter data errors surfacing as failed switches or estimated bills can talk to us about cleansing the data and fixing the controls behind it.