RTS (Radio Teleswitch Service) Shutdown Update

Many thanks to ​@Blastoise186  and ​@Bradley_OVO  for responding and looking into my issues.  This is what I believe have I learnt:

Firstly, my location has no or poor WAN coverage.  This is probably why I have not yet been offered a THTC meter exchange.  I am told that this is:

 "something our teams are working on resolving currently. I've had it confirmed that once a solution has been found OVO will be in touch with you directly to organise the meter change (which will be before the switch off date)."

Secondly, I might be able to request a smart meter exchange for my ECO10, but again:

"there would be factors that need to be addressed beforehand, which would explain why you're getting that error message when trying to book yourself online.
If you have a complex heating system set up we'd need our specialised metering team to do some investigation to make sure the exchange, in its current form doesnt impact this - seems to be judged on a site by site location currently."

The heating system is not that complex, just an Air-Source HP.  All I would want is a functional reaplacement for the existing meter.  However, without any WAN coverage, the exchange would be pointless, as I would still have to submit manual meter readings.

I am not entirely sure what the Three-MPAN thing that ​@Blastoise186 mentions, but the lack of WAN coverage would seem to be the killer.

So, it looks like I must carry on playing the waiting game.

Oh, and ​@Nukecad , I have seen enough positive comments on here, to let me believe that it can indeed be done, if the preconditions are right.  Thanks.

MPAN, or Meter Point Administration Number is basically the supply number. In your case, you have three because of your THTC + E10 setup.

​@Blastoise186, Yes, and so what is the issue?  The E10 is a completely separate supply and account - effectly a completely different building.  The THTC has 2 MPANs, but they are still on the end of just one cable.

That’s all Luke was able to tell me so far. But it’s a possible contributing factor.

​@Blastoise186 Thanks. Thinking about it some more, I suppose that it is quite possible that the two supplies share the same tap off the overhead transformer.   So, having two E10 supplies switching heating at the same time could create some new unexpected loading issues.  Hmmm!

Happy to have supported you ​@Jantang - Apprecaite not the immediate resolution we want right this second.

Glad to know that our internal teams are making all proper precautions ahead of contacting customers like yourself - Where your THTC supply is concerned, this will be OVO’s initial point of concern in resolving ahead of the switch off date. So, you can rest assured that you’ll be contacted ahead of this date! 

I would love to be able to acknowledge a sucessful smart meter installation.  I have had 2 “no shows” from the installation engineers to date and I am crossing my fingers (and legs and anything else I can cross) that my 3rd appointment scheduled for tomorrow will take place.  I will then be happy to report back here of a successful installation. Otherwise it will be a complaint to the ombudsman and a report back here of a third missed appointment.

I can now report a successful smart meter installation this afternoon.  This was achieved swiftly and efficiently by a very pleasant OVO engineer who answered my questions and explained how the home display worked.  The display appears to show the correct electricity rates for E10 in my area (MPAN 17) and has switched rates at the correct time this afternoon - will have to see if the evening and night switching times are ok.  Very happy so far, but will have to see if the Economy 10 tariff is the right one for me considering that I am losing my 24 hour cheap rate for water and panel  radiators that I had on THTC tariff.

Nice one ​@metalsman , thanks for letting us know!

Just got a few things for you to be aware of, hope you don’t mind! Long story short, please be aware that:

• The new meter may take up to six weeks before it starts to submit readings that show up on your account
• The new meter will need to run a bunch of tests and firmware updates over the next week or so
• It may take a few days before your new meter and tariff shows up on your account at all - hang in there!
• It’ll take around six weeks for your account to fully update as industry processes need to run to have all the systems catch up
• The engineer has taken the Final Readings from the removed meters and submitted them on your behalf - you’ll see these on the final bill that references them
• You’re more than welcome to swing by here again if you’ve got more questions :)

This thread is a goldmine! But there’s still something I couldn’t find any help on:

My Mum’s house in Northern Scotland (MPAN area 17) has storage heaters supplied via an RTS-controlled meter with a THTC tariff. The hours during which the heaters charge are controlled automatically depending on the weather forecast, which is great because it means she doesn’t need to fiddle with the heaters’ charging controls herself. Just set and forget.

But of course soon she will need to get a smart meter and switch to an E7 / E9 / E10 tariff. So does this mean waving goodbye to the handy automatic weather-dependent charging times? I can’t see anything which suggests this feature will be retained :-(

Thanks for any insights!

Welcome ​@lordvalumart ,

Thanks! I’m glad it’s helpful - it’s been a long process to get this out and it literally took over two years before I was able to get this one released. :)

Weather dependent switching was exclusive to certain Legacy RTS Tariffs only and is no longer available - this was terminated once all the RTS Tariffs were withdrawn from sale over a decade ago.

Economy 7/9/10 has never offered this functionality regardless of meter type. Smart Meters that manage these tariffs handle all the load switching locally on the meter itself - there’s no control signal to depend on which means it’s more reliable. Once configured, the meter will keep switching the load on/off pretty much bang on time no matter what happens to the WAN connection in the area.

Any heaters that are currently THTC controlled will still have the automatic charging retained when on Smart Meters, so you won’t need to mess around. The only difference in that regard is that the charging times will become more predictable rather than being random.

Hope this helps!

Good afternoon, I live in Aberdeenshire (MPAN17)and recently had a smart meter installed.  I was like you on the THTC tariff.  Can I give you my thoughts on this issue.

On THTC you never knew how many hours of storage charging you were getting as it was weather dependent but you could have had up to 12 hours of low cost electricity (cost is a separate and controversial issue).  The weather installation controlling the time in our locality is only a couple of miles away. Water heating was controlled by a separate signal on the RTS and was for a period of 3 hours although you did have a facility for a top up at cheap rates.

My smart meter was only installed a couple of days ago but here are my experiences so far.  With Economy 10 your storage radiators have the potential to be charged for 10 hours over the 24 hour day.  If you have the old fashioned storage units your radiators will charge for the full 10 hours.  If you have the more modern HHR (high heat retention) storage units e.g. Dimplex Quantum, they have an internal thermostat which switches the power off once the radiator store is up to temperature. I have been able to prove that by using the energy meter (IHD) supplied with the new meter as you can see when the internal thermostat cuts off the power to the storage unit. The fact that my radiators do not charge for the full 10 hours has led me to experiment with switching off the supply to the radiator during the afternoon charge period (13:30 to 16:30) to see if I can still get a comfortable temperature with just a 7 hour charge. On the basis of a couple of day results I am quite optomistic but I will need to experiment for a longer time period.

I know that has been a bit of a long answer to your question but the bottom line is - yes you will not get the weather dependant charge period when you change to E10/E9/E7 but if you have a modern HHR storage radiators they will control your period of actual charge time.

Thanks ​@Blastoise186 & ​@metalsman - that fits with what I thought. My Mum’s heaters are pretty old so I’m not sure how clever they are about controlling their charging. Perhaps she’ll just need to look at the weather forecast herself and set the heat input control manually. Shame… the automated solution seemed a nice idea.

It’s probably best to maintain the set and forget behaviour once you have the settings dialled in. Fiddling with them can end up costing you a fortune, especially if they’ve worked well so far.

So my dads meter was installed on 31/10/24 and appears to be working fine. He just had an OVO engineer turn up at his door to do a smart meter install. Explained it was all completed on 31/10/24 and the OVO eng left happy. 

On Monday this week, our other relative had a brand new OVO meter engineer arrive to install the replacement THTC meters with new smart meter. Unfortunatly I was out of the country, so contacted him when I got home. The engineer told him he could not change meter as he only did single meter changes and muttered something about this being a 3 phase supply. When I am next in going to get photos, but think it is a straightforward THTC setup with 2 meters. 

In that case, if you could post those photos we can definitely check. Three-Phase THTC is extremely rare, but I’ve heard of one or two installs where it’s a thing.

Just a final update on my journey from THTC 2 meters to a single smartmeter.  Yesterday my online account started to show my smartmeter (installed Sept 17) readings including backdating bills from installation until current. Although I haven't minutely checked them they all look fine with nothing jumping out at me. I did keep a note of readings periodically just in case, but I don't think they'll be needed. So, a success story for me and I'm sure many others. Thanks to all the posters on this thread whose input was invaluable. Keep the faith.

Thank you so much for reporting back ​@Joycie 😊 This feedback will help other community members

Definitely does not look like 3 phase to me - but not a spark. 

Ah ha! Yes… That makes FAR more sense now. At first glance, this appears to be a Single-Phase RTS setup, albeit one wired up in a way that I’ve not really seen before. I can’t say for sure exactly what tariff it’s set up for, but it looks like a possible E7/E10 arrangement.

The black unit on the left is a Radio Teleswitch - it’s not a Meter as such but a supporting device that helps tell a paired/connected RTS Meter when to switch between rates.

I’ll ask ​@Lukepeniket_OVO for his thoughts. Bear with me as this may take a little time since he’s off enjoying himself and having far too much fun replacing RTS Meters right now.

Either way, just about everyone here can agree on one thing - it needs to be replaced anyway due to the RTS Shutdown. I’m 100% confident about that part!

Team! Sorry for long delays. Day job has brought me into the hub in Bristol a few times these past few weeks.

​@Jantang, initially I believed a triple MPAN was going to be the blocker. I don't believe this now to be the case. 

The E150 has a built in timeclock and won't be affected by the RTS switch off but it's always a good idea to get smart!!

You live in MPAN 17 which you are correct is a LMA (Load managed area) and thus not currently eligible for Smart. We are so close to pilot for phase 3 of our RTS rollout (LMA) that we are currently in Shetland doing these to ensure they work with our systems and the DCC. We are still on track for the June 25 countdown. Please keep an eye out for comms once you become smart eligible!

​@thelearner initially I thought it was split phase but I can see the far left fuse feeds elsewhere and not your meter installation. You should be fine with a normal engineer turning up to do the job.

Thanks ​@Lukepeniket_OVO !

Still looking to handle ​@thelearner if you can. Bear with me - Forum Sweep in progress to catch others. Me and Luke are currently scanning for other threads awaiting a reply so we may respond to other folks shortly!

I would appreciate if you could message me directly your OVO account number please 🙏