Smart Pricing System
Intelligent pricing matcher with automatic LLF band calculation, multi-rate support, and comprehensive cost breakdown
Related Pages
What is Smart Pricing?
The Smart Pricing System is an intelligent pricing engine that automatically matches supplier pricing data to your meters with unprecedented accuracy and detail.
✨ Key Features:
- Automatic LLF Band Calculation - Calculates Line Loss Factor bands from profile class + HH status
- Geographic Area Matching - Auto-maps postcode to GSP area (electricity) or LDZ (gas)
- Multi-Rate Support - Handles Day/Night/Evening/Weekend rate structures
- HH Meter Charges - Includes capacity charges and metering fees
- Environmental Charges - Green levy, CCL, and Renewable Obligation
- Effective Unit Cost - Calculates true all-in cost per kWh
- Rate Type Detection - Identifies Single/Dual/Multi-rate structures
- Best Deal Highlighting - Automatically shows cheapest option
How It Works
1️⃣ Click "Get Smart Pricing"
Select meters from the pricing modal and click the button. The system fetches meter details including:
- Profile class
- Is Half-Hourly status
- Postcode
- Estimated Annual Consumption (EAC)
- Day/Night/Evening splits
- kVA demand (for HH meters)
2️⃣ Intelligent Matching
The system performs intelligent matching:
- Calculates LLF Band - PC 01-02 → A, PC 03-04 → B, PC 05-08 → C, HH → HH
- Gets Geographic Area - Postcode → GSP area (electricity) or LDZ (gas)
- Filters by Consumption - Matches AQ min/max ranges
- Checks Duration - Contract term matching
- Validates Dates - Start date availability
3️⃣ Cost Calculation
Comprehensive cost breakdown includes:
- Energy Cost - Single or multi-rate calculations
- Standing Charge - Daily rate × 365
- Capacity Charge - For HH meters (£/kVA/year × kVA)
- Metering Charge - For HH meters (£/year)
- Green Charge - Environmental levy
- CCL - Climate Change Levy (p/kWh × EAC)
- RO - Renewable Obligation (£/MWh)
4️⃣ Beautiful Display
Results shown with:
- ☀️ Day rate with sun emoji
- 🌙 Night rate with moon emoji
- 🌆 Evening/Weekend rate with city emoji
- 🏷️ Rate type badges (Multi-Rate, Dual-Rate, Single-Rate)
- 🔖 LLF band badges (A, B, C, D, E, HH)
- 💰 Effective unit cost (all-in p/kWh)
- ⚡ Additional charges (HH meters)
- ✅ Best Deal highlighted in green
User Guide
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Go to Customers page
- Click on any customer to view their details
- Click the Get Latest Prices button in the actions section
Tip: Make sure the customer has meters with postcodes and EAC values for accurate matching.
- The pricing modal will open showing all customer meters
- Select one or more meters using the checkboxes
- Use "Select All" to check all meters at once
- Review meter details: Type, MPAN/MPRN, Site, EAC, Current Rate
Note: Only meters with valid postcode and EAC will return accurate pricing matches.
- Click the Get Smart Pricing button
- System will process each meter (takes 1-2 seconds per meter)
- Watch the console (F12) for detailed logs if interested
- Results will appear in a beautiful comparison table
Success: You'll see a message: "Retrieved X smart pricing quotes with multi-rate breakdown!"
The results table shows:
- Supplier Name with badges (Best Deal, Rate Type, LLF Band)
- Unit Rates - Single rate OR multi-rate breakdown (☀️/🌙/🌆)
- Standing Charge - p/day
- Total Annual Cost with effective unit cost below
- Source Badge - Smart Match, API, or Scraper
- Additional Charges row for HH meters (⚡📊🌱🏭)
Best Deal: Cheapest option is highlighted in green with a ✅ badge.
- Click the Select button on your chosen pricing option
- System will pre-fill quote details with the selected rates
- Review and adjust if needed
- Save the quote
Tip: All rates and charges are automatically populated - no manual entry needed!
Technical Details
API Endpoints:
| Endpoint | Method | Description |
|---|---|---|
/api/pricing/match-meter |
POST | Match single meter to pricing data |
/api/pricing/compare-suppliers |
POST | Compare specific suppliers for a meter |
/api/pricing/best-quote/{meter_id} |
GET | Get single best quote for a meter |
LLF Band Calculation:
| Profile Class | Meter Type | LLF Band | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01-02 | Non-HH | A | Domestic unrestricted |
| 03-04 | Non-HH | B | Domestic Economy 7 |
| 05-08 | Non-HH | C | Non-domestic small |
| Any | Half-Hourly | HH | Half-hourly metered |
Cost Calculation Formula:
Energy Cost = {
Single-rate: eac × unit_rate
Dual-rate: (day_eac × day_rate) + (night_eac × night_rate)
Multi-rate: + (evening_weekend_eac × evening_weekend_rate)
}
Standing Charge Annual = (standing_charge_p_day × 365) / 100
HH Charges = {
Capacity: capacity_rate × kva
Metering: metering_charge_annual
}
Environmental = {
Green: green_charge_annual
CCL: (eac × ccl_rate) / 100
RO: (eac / 1000) × ro_rate
}
Total Annual Cost = Energy + Standing + HH + Environmental
Effective Unit Cost = (Total / eac) × 100Benefits & Business Value
⏱️ Time Savings
- Before: 5-10 minutes per quote
- Manual postcode lookup
- Calculate LLF band
- Find matching pricing
- Calculate multi-rate costs
- Add HH charges manually
- After: 1 second per quote
- Savings: 200-2,000 hours/year
✅ Accuracy Improvements
- ✅ Automatic LLF band calculation
- ✅ Automatic postcode → area mapping
- ✅ Accurate multi-rate breakdown
- ✅ Precise HH meter charges
- ✅ All environmental charges included
- ✅ Effective unit cost calculated
- ✅ Easy side-by-side comparison
Financial Impact
Time Savings: £5,000-100,000/year (200-2,000 hours × £25-50/hour)
Accuracy: Fewer pricing errors = fewer disputes, better margins, higher conversion rate
Troubleshooting
Common Issues:
❌ "No pricing matches found"
Causes:
- Meter has no postcode
- Meter has no EAC (Estimated Annual Consumption)
- No pricing data uploaded for that supplier/area
- Consumption outside available AQ ranges
Solution:
- Ensure meter has valid postcode
- Add EAC to meter (day_eac + night_eac OR estimated_annual_consumption)
- Upload pricing data for the supplier (see Pricing Templates)
- Check pricing data covers the consumption range
⚠️ "Only showing single-rate pricing"
Cause: Uploaded pricing data doesn't include day/night rate columns
Solution: Re-upload pricing with proper column mapping for day_rate, night_rate, etc.
⚠️ "No HH charges showing"
Cause: Either meter is not marked as HH, or pricing data doesn't include capacity/metering charges
Solution: Mark meter as Half-Hourly, add kVA value, ensure pricing data includes HH charges
🔍 Debugging Tips:
- Open browser console (F12) and watch for detailed logs
- Look for "🚀 Using NEW Smart Pricing algorithm!" message
- Check for any error messages in red
- Verify meter has: postcode, EAC, profile_class (for LLF band)