Explainer
ECOES, the Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service, is the industry database of electricity supply points in Great Britain. Under the Retail Energy Code it is now formally the Electricity Enquiry Service. Here is what it holds, who can use it and why its data matters to suppliers.
By Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
ECOES lets authorised users look up the details of an electricity supply point by its MPAN or address: the registered supplier, meter and network details and the other data that switching, billing and settlement depend on. Under the Retail Energy Code it is called the Electricity Enquiry Service, but most people in the industry still call it ECOES.
Access is restricted. Suppliers, network operators and accredited third parties can use it, under the terms set by the Retail Energy Code, and it is funded by electricity suppliers and distributors. It is not a public lookup: a household or business that wants to know its own supplier should check a bill or ask its network operator.
Central data is only as good as what each party sends into it. A wrong address, a missing meter or a stale meter detail turns into failed switches, estimated bills and settlement errors later. Suppliers that reconcile their own records against central data regularly catch these problems before their customers do. Our billing integrity and revenue assurance work is built around that reconciliation.
Market wide half hourly settlement changes how registration and meter data moves between parties, through the new Data Integration Platform, and places every MPAN in a market segment. Keeping central and internal data aligned through the migration to May 2027 is one of the less visible but more important parts of being ready.
Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service. Under the Retail Energy Code it is now called the Electricity Enquiry Service.
Not directly, because access is limited to industry parties. Check a bill, or use the Energy Networks Association postcode search to find your network operator, which can tell you who supplies the property.
It is a Retail Energy Code service, funded by electricity suppliers and distributors.
Gas supply points are identified by an MPRN, and the gas supplier for a property can be found through the Find My Supplier service.
Related reading: what is an MPAN?, half hourly meters explained, energy billing explained.
If switching failures, crossed meters or unbilled supplies are costing you money, we can reconcile your data to the industry position and fix the causes.