Commercial Water

 Manage your business water alongside your electricity and gas.

Commercial water can easily become another supplier, contract, bill and account for a business to manage.

Orbital helps businesses, landlords, property managers and multi-site organisations review and manage their commercial water and wastewater services alongside their wider utility portfolio.

Whether you're looking to review your current water retailer, investigate a bill, deal with a change of tenancy or bring multiple sites together, Orbital can help.

One contact for every property, meter and utility.

For eligible business customers, the company that provides your retail water service may be different from the regional water company responsible for the physical water network.

Your retailer normally handles customer-facing services such as:

• Bills
• Meter readings
• Account management
• Payments
• Customer service
• Contract arrangements

The regional wholesaler remains responsible for areas such as:

• The water network
• Physical water supply
• Sewerage infrastructure
• Wastewater treatment
• Certain operational issues

If you're not sure who you need to contact, speak to Orbital and we'll help establish the next step.

Commercial water bills can be difficult to understand, particularly where a business operates across multiple locations.

Orbital can help review available water account and billing information.

Depending on the information available, this may include:

• Water consumption
• Meter readings
• Estimated readings
• Billing periods
• Water charges
• Wastewater charges
• Standing or fixed charges
• Meter details
• SPID information
• Historic billing
• Unexpected adjustments
• Change-of-tenancy dates

Where something appears inconsistent, we can help investigate the issue and, where authorised, communicate with the relevant retailer.

Within the competitive business water market, eligible non-household premises are identified 

using a Supply Point Identifier — SPID.

A property can have SPID information associated with its water and wastewater services.

For property managers and multi-site businesses, keeping accurate SPID information alongside MPANs and MPRNs can make utility management much easier.

Orbital can help maintain portfolio information including:

Electricity — MPAN

Gas — MPRN

Water — SPID

All connected to the correct property or site.

Water accounts need to be updated when responsibility for a property changes.

Incorrect occupancy information can lead to disputes about who is responsible for charges.

Orbital can help manage the water side of a change of tenancy alongside electricity and gas.

This may include:

• Tenant move-ins
• Tenant move-outs
• Landlord responsibility periods
• Opening meter readings
• Closing meter readings
• Occupancy dates
• Retailer notification
• Account information
• Vacant properties
• New tenant details where appropriate

For property managers, managing electricity, gas and water changes together can significantly simplify the process.

When a commercial property becomes vacant, the associated water account may still need to be managed.

Orbital can help establish:

• Which retailer supplies the property
• Relevant SPID information
• Meter details
• Current account status
• Meter readings
• Outstanding bills
• Occupancy information
• What information needs updating

When the next tenant moves in, we can help coordinate the water change of tenancy alongside the property's other utilities.

For organisations operating across multiple premises, commercial water can become another complicated part of the utility portfolio.

Different properties may have:

• Different retailers
• Different SPIDs
• Different meters
• Different billing arrangements
• Different consumption
• Different occupancy
• Outstanding account issues

Orbital can help businesses and property managers create a clearer picture of their commercial water estate.

For each property, this may include:

• Site address
• Water retailer
• SPID
• Meter information
• Consumption
• Billing information
• Contract information
• Occupancy status
• Change-of-tenancy activity
• Outstanding issues
• 
  

This information can then sit alongside your electricity and gas portfolio.

A multi-site organisation may inherit different water retailers as it acquires or opens properties.

Where market rules and retailer offerings allow, Orbital can explore opportunities to simplify the way commercial water is managed across your portfolio.

This might include reviewing opportunities for:

• Fewer retailers
• Consolidated account management
• Simplified billing
• Common contract arrangements
• Improved visibility of consumption
• Centralised utility administration

Whether consolidation is suitable will depend on your properties, current arrangements and the options available.

Monitoring consumption can help identify unusual changes and provide better visibility of costs.

Where suitable information is available, Orbital can help review:

• Current consumption
• Historic consumption
• Meter readings
• Estimated usage
• Changes in consumption
• Differences between sites
• Unexpected increases

An unexplained increase in consumption does not automatically mean there is a billing error.

It may indicate that further investigation of the meter, site usage or potential water loss is required.

Where a physical leak or network issue is suspected, an appropriate water retailer, wholesaler or specialist contractor may need to investigate.

Commercial water disputes can arise for several reasons.

Examples include:

• Incorrect occupancy dates
• Estimated readings
• Incorrect meter information
• Unexpected consumption
• Historic charges
• Bills relating to previous occupiers
• Missing account information
• Incorrect site details
• Unexpected adjustments

Where authorised, Orbital can help:

• Review the available information
• Establish what appears to have happened
• Gather supporting evidence
• Contact the retailer
• Raise account queries
• Chase outstanding responses
• Help coordinate the issue through to an appropriate next step

When a business, landlord or property manager takes responsibility for a new commercial property, electricity and gas are often dealt with first.

Water should be included too.

Orbital can help establish:

• Whether the premises has an eligible business water supply
• Current water retailer
• SPID information
• Meter details
• Account position
• Current occupancy
• Change-of-tenancy requirements
• Any apparent outstanding issues

The water supply can then be added to your wider Orbital utility portfolio. 

Business water market arrangements vary across Great Britain.

Most businesses, charities and public sector organisations in England are eligible to choose their water and wastewater retailer.

Eligibility is more restricted. Businesses generally need to meet the applicable consumption threshold to choose their water retailer, and different rules apply to wastewater services.

Scotland operates a separate competitive non-household water retail market.

We'll establish the location and circumstances of your premises before advising what options may be available.

Commercial water shouldn't have to sit in a completely separate system from everything else.

A property may have:

Electricity — MPAN

Gas — MPRN

Water — SPID

It may also have:

Contract dates

Meter readings

Bills

Tenant information

Outstanding issues

Orbital's aim is to bring that information together.

For businesses and property managers, commercial water can form part of your wider:

Property & Multi-Site Utility Management

Utility & Account Management

Bill Validation & Supplier Disputes

Change of Tenancy

Business Energy Procurement

If you have one, send us your latest commercial water bill.

For multiple properties, you can send us your existing site list or water account information.

We'll look at the retailer, SPID, consumption, charges and other available account information.

That might mean:

• Reviewing alternative retailer options
• Investigating a bill
• Updating occupancy
• Organising multiple sites
• Resolving an account problem
• Simply confirming that the existing arrangement appears appropriate
• 
  

Where authorised, we can help manage the next steps and communicate with the relevant organisations.