Entering and validating your MPRNs and GPRNs simplifies your annual reporting obligations, because it enables you to report your electricity and natural gas consumption without having to measure or calculate your own consumption. The system automatically sources the consumption data directly from the meter operators.
Almost all the guidance on this page applies to both MPRNs and GPRNs.
If you add a new MPRN or GPRN to the system, SEAI can only access historical consumption data for it for the reporting year and for the previous six years. If your organisation consumed energy via that MPRN or GPRN before this threshold, then SEAI cannot access the data and you will need to self-report your consumption for that MPRN or GPRN for the relevant year(s). (New = an MPRN or GPRN that is newly added to the system. The MPRN or GPRN, and the metered connection itself, could be longstanding. The reporting year is the most recently completed calendar year for which your organisation is expected to report data to SEAI.)
For guidance on self-reporting, see ‘non-MPRN electricity’ and ‘non-GPRN natural gas’ in energy types.
This section describes the methodology for validating MPRNs & GPRNs. For step-by-step guidance on using the data validation screens in the M&R software, see MPRNs (electricity) and GPRNs (natural gas).
Although you only have to enter your MPRNs and GPRNs into the system once, you must validate them every year. When you validate an MPRN or GPRN for a specific year, you are declaring that:
Consumption is only provided for MPRNs and GPRNs that have been validated each year. If you do not validate an MPRN or GPRN, or if you classify it as 'not validated', the meter operator does not provide the consumption data to SEAI. The annual validation process enables SEAI to incorporate robust data protection principles into the M&R process.
You must validate your MPRNs and GPRNs by the meter validation deadline (meter deadline). MPRNs or GPRNs that have not been validated by this deadline will not be included in SEAI's data request to the meter operators and the consumption data will not be provided.
There are two key steps in validating each MPRN or GPRN:
The system incorporates functionality to validate multiple MPRNs or GPRNs at once via bulk update and upload functions.
The first step in validating each MPRN or GPRN involves setting a validation status for the year.
The five validation statuses are described below. You should choose the relevant status for each MPRN and GPRN for each year. A validation status could change from year to year, e.g. if your organisation moves into or out of a building.
If you pay the bill, your organisation is the listed end-user and you consume all or part of the energy, you should choose ‘valid; owned; listed end-user’. This option applies to the most common circumstances.
Selecting this status means you confirm that your organisation was the listed end-user of the MPRN/GPRN in the year(s) indicated, and had a direct contractual arrangement with one or more electricity/natural gas supplier(s) for the supply of electricity/natural gas through the MPRN/GPRN in the year(s) specified. Your organisation is also consenting for the electricity/natural gas meter operator to disclose to your organisation and to SEAI the historic electricity/natural gas account data for the MPRN/GPRN for the years specified.
If you select this status, SEAI will request consumption data for the MPRN or GPRN from the meter operator for the relevant year.
If you pay the bill and you consume all or part of the energy but your organisation is not the listed end-user (i.e. another organisation or a named individual is the listed end-user), you should choose ‘valid; owned; listed end-user consent received’.
Selecting this status means you confirm that although your organisation was not the listed end-user of the MPRN/GPRN in the year(s) indicated, your organisation had a direct contractual arrangement in place with one or more electricity/natural gas supplier(s) for the supply of electricity/natural gas through the MPRN/GPRN in the year(s) specified. You are also confirming that you have received consent from the listed end-user for the electricity/natural gas meter operator to disclose to your organisation and to SEAI the historic electricity/natural gas account data for the MPRN/GPRN for the years specified.
If you select this status, SEAI will request consumption data for the MPRN or GPRN from the meter operator for the relevant year.
If your landlord or another organisation pays the energy bill, but your organisation consumes all or part of the energy, you should choose ‘valid; not-owned; listed end-user consent received’. You should also choose this status if any of the following less common circumstances apply:
Selecting this status means you confirm that although your organisation was not the listed end-user of the MPRN/GPRN in the year(s) indicated, your organisation was an attributed consumer. You are also confirming that you have received consent from the listed end-user for the electricity/natural gas meter operator to disclose to your organisation and to SEAI the historic electricity/natural gas account data for the MPRN/GPRN for the year(s) specified.
If you select this status, SEAI will request consumption data for the MPRN or GPRN from the meter operator for the relevant year.
When you retire an MPRN or GPRN you are declaring that the MPRN or GPRN is no longer in use by your organisation e.g. if your organisation has moved out of a premises. Setting an MPRN or GPRN as 'retired' is equivalent to classifying it as ‘not validated’ for all years from the retirement year onwards.
If you select this status, SEAI will not request consumption data for the MPRN or GPRN from the meter operator for the relevant year.
If one or more of the following are not true for a specific year, you should select ‘not validated’:
If you select this status, SEAI will not request consumption data for the MPRN or GPRN from the meter operator for the relevant year.
The second step in validating each MPRN or GPRN involves setting an attributable consumption for the year.
There are several ways in which you can determine the percentage attributable consumption for a shared MPRN or GPRN:
Your MPRNs and GPRNs will only change if your organisation occupies a new premises, vacates an existing premises or adds/changes an electricity or natural gas connection. In these circumstances, you should update your list of MPRNs and GPRNs on the system. Switching electricity or gas supplier will not affect your MPRNs or GPRNs.
If your organisation consumed energy through an MPRN or GPRN for part of a specific year and another organisation did so for the remainder of that year, then you should classify the meter as ‘not validated’ for that specific year and self-report the relevant consumption. If you are unsure whether a third party consumed energy through the meter for the remainder of the year, you should also choose this option.
If your organisation consumed energy through the meter for part of a specific year and the connection remained unused for the remainder of the year, you can classify the meter using one of the ‘valid’ classifications. In this circumstance, you should not self-report the relevant consumption.
For guidance on self-reporting, see ‘non-MPRN electricity’ and ‘non-GPRN natural gas’ in energy types.
When you retire an MPRN or GPRN you are declaring that the MPRN or GPRN is no longer in use by your organisation e.g. if your organisation has moved out of a premises. When you retire a meter, the system sets the validation status for the MPRN or GPRN to 'retired', which is equivalent to ‘not validated’ for all years from the retirement year onwards.
Your historical validation status and meter consumption are saved but you will no longer be asked to validate this MPRN or GPRN in future years.
There is currently no option to 'un-retire' an MPRN or GPRN on the system. This functionality is being developed. If you need to un-retire an MPRN or GPRN, you should contact the M&R helpdesk, who can do it for you.
If your organisation did not consume energy through an MPRN or GPRN during specific year(s), then you should classify the meter as ‘not validated’ for the relevant years.
You should only delete an MPRN or GPRN from the system if it was never used by your organisation at any time since the beginning of your energy efficiency baseline period.
There are several less common scenarios where an organisation may encounter administrative and other challenges when seeking to validate an MPRN or GPRN.
If your landlord or another organisation pays your energy bill, you will need consent from them to access the MPRN or GPRN consumption data. You should explain that, as a public body, your organisation is legally obliged to report annually on your energy consumption, in accordance with Regulation 5(3) of SI 426 of 2014. The reportable consumption includes energy used in leased buildings that may be paid for by another party e.g. a landlord.
To facilitate good energy management practices in the longer run, you could consider the installation of sub-meters on your organisation’s share of the energy supplies.
If you are not in a position to classify an MPRN or GPRN with one of the ‘valid’ statuses but you consumed energy through the meter in the relevant year, you should classify the meter as ‘not validated’. Then self-report the relevant electricity or natural gas consumption.
For guidance on self-reporting, see ‘non-MPRN electricity’ and ‘non-GPRN natural gas’ in energy types.
The listed end-user is the legal entity or individual that is named under the supply address on your electricity gas bill. There can be several reasons why it may not match the current name of your organisation.
It is particularly important to update this record if the current listed end-user is a named individual. In these cases, SEAI cannot access consumption data for the MPRN, regardless of the validation status. To update the listed end-user for an MPRN, you should contact your energy supplier and request the update.
From time to time, MPRNs and GPRNs are entered into the system for which the meter operators cannot provide consumption data to SEAI.
There are two primary reasons why MPRNs may be rejected:
You can review rejected MPRNs in data report electricity meters (MPRNs) - no data provided by meter operator. You should take the following steps if an MPRN is rejected:
For guidance on self-reporting, see ‘non-MPRN electricity’ in energy types.
There are two primary reasons why GPRNs may be rejected:
You can review rejected GPRNs in data report gas meters (GPRNs) - no data provided by meter operator. You should take the following steps if a GPRN is rejected:
For guidance on self-reporting, see ‘non-GPRN natural gas’ in energy types.
The MPRNs used for unmetered public lighting systems are referred to as group MPRNs or GMPRNs. GMPRNs are also eleven digits long, but they start with the digit 9.
GMPRNs should be reported and validated in the same way as MPRNs.
Some GMPRN-level public lighting consumption shown in data reports may appear to fluctuate over time in an unexpected manner. This is because of the dynamic relationship between technical MPRNs (TMPRNs) and GMPRNs. Each unmetered public lighting connection point is allocated a TMPRN. These are grouped into GMPRNs. The allocation of TMPRNs to GMPRNs can change over time - a particular TMPRN could be allocated to a particular GMRPN in one year but to a different GMPRN the next year. This can result in anomalies in GMPRN data, e.g. consumption may appear to increase or decrease over time.
Any such anomalies should balance out when consumption is analysed at organisation level or across all GMPRNs within a local authority’s scope.
An alternative approach is for a local authority to report all TMPRNs and not to report GMPRNs. Either approach is acceptable as long as all consumption is accounted for and there is no double-counting.
If a local authority is aware of TMPRNs that are not allocated to any GMPRN, those TMPRNs should be reported separately.
There are several scenarios outlined above where you should self-report consumption instead of validating an MPRN or GPRN. These scenarios are summarised for electricity under ‘non-MPRN electricity’ and for natural gas under ‘non-GPRN natural gas’ in energy types.
Self-reporting consumption is an alternative to entering and validating MPRNs and GPRNs.