Charge Anytime and Ohme integration update: important information for our customers

[EDIT] Apologies, I can see that was already answered, but I cant delete this post.

Very good point.

Ohme addresses this in an update to this post: https://ohme-ev.com/support/anytime_update_1/

“ Ohme will continue to protect your home’s electricity supply, even if your Ohme account is deleted and whether your charger is online or offline. However, OVO will not be able to detect if your charging rate is reduced due to load balancing. This means the Charge Anytime app may create a schedule based on a higher charging rate than your charger is able to deliver, which could result in your vehicle not reaching its set target in time. “

So there was never any risk to the properties supply being overloaded, but CA’s calculations could be skewed as it has no awareness of then the charging output needs to be reduced by the charger. So we need to either account for (estimate this) in our charging target time and/or avoid those ‘busy’ times in the home (e.g. when the electric cooker/shower will be running etc).

The security risk you describe is considered self-inflicted, so I cannot feed this back to OVO - the idea is that you rebuild your Ohme account and reconnect it to the charger. That will restore all functionality including almost everything the article says you’ll lose.

As much as I want to warn Ohme directly… They’re no longer willing to speak to me (or anyone for that matter!) so I can’t initiate Responsible Disclosure.

Once again, Terrible Ohme Article Syndrome has struck!!!

IMPORTANT NEXT STEPS

For your security and to ensure you get the desired features i.e. locking buttons/plug-in approvals back, you must re-establish ownership of your Ohme Charger by rebuilding your Ohme account and linking it back up after you migrate to the Charge Anytime app.

Failure to do so may allow someone to seize control of your charger without your consent - you’d have to ask Ohme to fix it if that happened.

I will ask for the instructions on OVO’s side to be updated.

This is an email I have sent to OVO having not received any response to date regarding similar question about the change over. 
 

if anyone is able to assist I would be grateful but having read a lot about the issues on the forum I think it would be easier to platt fog.

anyway here goes.

I have recently followed all instructions to the letter with regards to changing from ohme app to charge anytime app. 

I have set charge to 0600hrs each day , min charge 0% max 100%.

My car is a Mercedes 250e on beta with app, max battery charge 7.4kwh.

As soon as I plug in it starts charging, usually plugging in the late evening.

I am not convinced it is the greenest time of the day, but because the app does not display any savings i do not know.
The dashboard on the app has not once recognised my car although the ‘last update tab’ is usually up to date. And yes I have followed the instructions to try to locate the ev but it has not happened. Although details of my car are linked to the app. The dashboard just shows the wheel of death circulating. 

I have looked at my ovo account and found the usage information detailing ev usage estimation. I have divided this by the kWh used and it calculates approximately 22p per KWh.
This is not the cheap rate and I cannot do anything else to change the functionality. 

Firstly can someone please get in touch so this can be rectified. 

Secondly, can you confirm my tie in to a fixed rate exit fee until September this year will be waived if this cannot be resolved so I can change supplier.
 

regards

I’ve recently switched from using my Ohme app to the CA app. It’s worked the last few times without issue but tonight the CA app remains last updated at 18:29 and it’s not recognising that I connected the charger 50mins ago at 20:59. Any suggestions on how I might charge my car overnight?

PS disappointing to see the OVO phone lines close at 5pm, long before any overnight charging issues might arise 
 

Root cause is an upstream incident with Enode. Please see https://status.enode.com/incidents/01JZ7VA48HPFCHAJ2XDVK721QE for details.

Thanks

This is still being worked on, but as the Mercedes integration is in Beta and Mercedes Me isn’t exactly the most well designed software platform, it’s tricky for OVO to give a perfect experience at this time.

There’s also this to be aware of: https://status.enode.com/incidents/01JZ7VA48HPFCHAJ2XDVK721QE

Morning ​@SteveB4480 and welcome to the OVO Forum. I’ve added the EV badge to your Forum account.

I can see ​@Blastoise186 has stepped in here with some helpful information, and I’m sorry for the issues you’re experiencing - very frustrating. I just wanted to link you to this Forum article about the Mercedes Beta trial - not the news you’ll want to hear I know but hopefully it gives a bit more clarity:

Just to check ​@SteveB4480 - you’ve mentioned that you’ve emailed in. Did you email hello@ovoenergy.com? If so, that’s our general Customer Services, and they won’t be able to help too much with this one. For anything EV related, you’ll need to speak to our Charge Anytime team via chargeanytime@ovo.com.

Hey all newbie here been using Ohme charger for 7 months with zero problems.Tried to hop over to charge anytime today and now stuck with spinning circle and the message ‘trying to locate your Renault’ it’s on my driveway.Was like that for over 30 mins so gave up.Car is Renault Scenic 2024 is there any specific problems been mentioned on here with this model and charge anytime or does anyone have ideas how to fix this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi ​@Mrmikey ,

Probably one for the team on 0330 175 9678 or chargeanytime@ovo.com .

However, these might help…

1. Does the vehicle have an ACTIVE subscription to Renault Connected Services?
2. Is location services enabled in the vehicle?
3. Is the vehicle somewhere it gets a signal?
4. Are you on the latest vehicle firmware?

Try these and see if they help

Ok thanks for the help Blastoise186.I will check this out today and report back later in case anyone else has the same problem.

I have now moved to Octopus Energy. I just thought i would write to say how well the change over went. My change over day was 28th June. I was put on a temporary fixed tariff to start with, until Octopus could confirm that they were getting the readings from my smart meter.

By the following Wednesday, I had been put on to intelligent Octopus Go, which I integrated with my Ohme charge point, and I did my first charge. All went well, and I am being charged the same rate for charging my car that I was being charged by OVO. 

I was on a fixed tariff with OVO, which was due to end on December of this year. However, I was not charged an exit fee by OVO for leaving early. So, all in all, my change over experience has been entirely positive.

​@dpotter I'm sorry that have gone to Octopus but the view on here is that people should find a tariff that works for them even if it's with another supplier. I'm also pleased that the transition went well for you because that can sometimes be a difficult period whilst your meter readings get transferred. I moved to Octopus in March last year and it has worked out well for me and for the same reason. My car and charger are not compatible but I was sorry to go because I had been with them for nearly 10 years and had received very good customer service from them. I’ve stayed on here as a volunteer helping to resolve issues for their customers in recognition of that good service.

Regards

Peter 

PS You may find Octopus billing a bit haphazard compared with OVO. It doesn't happen that often but I got my gas bill on time for last month but the electricity bill is currently 10 days late but it will arrive eventually. 

Hey Blastoise186,questions 1to 4 all checked and affirmative.I checked the Ohme settings and the car was still paired to the Ohme app,in fact amongst the Ovo advice to switch over to charge anytime app it doesn’t instruct you to unpair at any stage.Anyway,I’ve unpaired now so car only paired with charge anytime app.I am away from home until next Saturday so won’t be able to try my home charger until then but hopefully all will be well.

No worries - make sure to rebuild your Ohme account ASAP so you regain ownership of the Charger!

I'm must admit I'm very dissappointed with OVO & the removal of intergration with my ohme epod home charger the lack of clear information on how to change this is a big let done I've e-mailed them twice & got the same reply 2/5 days for a reply, I will probably close my account & go with Octopus

Hi ​@Welshcob ,

It would have probably been faster if you’d come to the Forum anyway - we’ve had the information available here the entire time. The Charge Anytime team has been working like mad to keep up with emails and phone calls, but they’ve been swamped by huge volumes and this is the ultimate reason they haven’t been able to respond to you - there’s just been too many folks getting in touch with what is basically a small team.

Either way, you just need to delete and rebuild your Ohme account, then download the Charge Anytime app and set that up with your vehicle - it only takes a few minutes!

Is there any plan to add more vehicles to the compatible list? VW has an official partnership with OVO yet the Golf Hybrid/GTE models are not on the list. I installed an Ohme charger a few months ago when I bought my car to take advantage of the 7p charging rate. As of tomorrow neither my charger nor my car will be compatible with Charge Anytime.

There are indeed - more vehicles get added regularly.

I don’t have details on what vehicles and chargers are next on the list, but please keep an eye on it - it can be updated at anytime.

Thanks for the quick response. I’m reluctant to change to another supplier too soon as it seems OVO are the only one to genuinely charge anytime rather than having off-peak hours. Hoping the Golf will be added soon as I tend to use almost all my 80% charge every day so it’s a significant saving.

Hi. What do you mean by ‘ regain ownership of the [Ohme] Charger ‘ ?

The advise is to logout from the Ohme charger as I understand, e.g. to turn smart into dumb so that OVO Anytime + car are doing everything.

Are you suggesting to then log back into the Ohme (Ohme account i mean, not + integrate car) ?
Would this not go against the instructions and have the Ohme taking actions again?

Thanks.

As long as you don’t link the Ohme charger back to the vehicle, it’ll work fine as the Charger won’t interfere.

Ohme’s documentation is terrible!

I work in I.T. so i’m used to doing it my way when it comes to instructions …..

I actually didn’t unlink my Ohme account from my charger (as to retain ‘ authorize plug-in ‘ and general view of the charger. I did unlink my car as I was aware this could end-up overriding things that OVO-AC might set.

I can see some things to be aware of using this method however, which would likely not be ideal for ‘ non techy ‘ people who just needs things to work when they plug-in.

For example I disabled ‘ Settings>My charger > regulated charging hours ‘, since AC might instruct the car to charge during these blocked times.

Also I disabled ‘ dynamic charging ‘ on the main page, as the Ohme (smartly) lowers the output wattage to a) assist the grid and b) be kinder to the EV batteries. I have not seen AC do this, it just pulls full wattage when charging and so it seemed better to NOT have the Ohme do this (and mess with the AC calculations).

I suspect for most it best to just follow the OVO and Ohme advise and log out of the charger to render it dumb (as bad as that seems) 

I am now with Octopus as my electricity supplier. The tariff I am on is called Intelligent Octopus Go. All of my dynamic charging is billed at the off-peak rate (7p per kWh) regardless of the actual time that the charging takes place. It is very much like the way charging with OVO works. You say what percentage charge you want to put in to your EV, and the time you want your car to be ready. Ohme then works out the best times to do the charging.

Hey mate,just to clarify what I need to include in Ohme account rebuild :

On the Ovo instructions step 1 is to cancel Charge Anytime add on (so obviously don’t turn back on as Charge Antime app will takeover)

step 2 Update Ohme app on charging screen to avoid charging issues

clear any ready times and charging schedules 

disable dynamic charging

tap price cap and untick enable price cap

Can/do I restore the 3 things cancelled in step 2 or leave turned off

sorry to be a pain but I’m pretty clueless on this so do very much appreciate your guidance.

Leave those disabled.

You can use more or less everything else