Battery Boost - any active users?

Hi ​@mikes01666 ,

It’s worth noting that OVO uses a different method to calculate the number crunching than the data you see from your own system. Generally, it’s best to use what OVO gets IIRC.

If the Givenergy portal is reporting a 155 kWh usage of 'Grid to Battery' during December the rebate should be approximately 155 x( 23 - 10p). Roughly £20.

The usage in January was 209 kWh. The rebate should be in region of £30.

The actual rebate was £6.21 for December and £12.29 for January.

The smart meter appears to be working well and the whole system in Cat 5 cabled.

I understand the may be losses at the margins but not to this extent. 

Great. Can I see the data that OVO uses to make the calculation? 

I don’t know how to make that request I’m afraid

How do I verify the rebate? Am I totally reliant on OVO and Kaluza?

If there is a problem with the Smart meter can OVO arrange to replace it? 

If there is a problem with the system can OVO fix it as it's still under warranty.

As I mentioned, the system is hard wired so the flaky wifi excuse can be excluded. 

The best I can think of is to talk to OVO Support. They can get the team who handles this to dig the logs.

HOWEVER, the chances of a Smart Meter being inaccurate are extremely remote - they constantly self-calibrate and are subject to very strict rules around accuracy and calibration.

I get the feeling there is no fault here in anything - just differences in how the measurements are taken.

Battery Boost is a way of power shifting from night to day. As a result of shifting I make no demands on the grid until the evening.

I am granting OVO ( via Kaluza) remote access to a very expensive battery to enable this power shift.

However when I ask for simple usage statistics in order to calculate the rebate, no one is able to provide them! 

Has anyone else actual experience of Battery Boost?

I’m afraid we don’t have an answer for absolutely every possible question that could ever be asked here - especially those that are account specific since we can’t access your account.

As much as I’d happily whip up the stats you’re after if I could, it’s beyond my power as a Forum Volunteer to do so.

As you mentioned via PM, the Solar Team at OVO has already responded and advised you to reach out to Giv Energy because the data isn’t flowing very reliably - that’s probably your next port of call and likely a wise move to try. It’s possible that their team might have a fix that improves reliability of the data flows - bad Wi-Fi is not the only possible culprit - so that OVO can get the data through for more accurate number crunching.

Well I will try Givenergy but Battery Boost is an OVO add on that OVO has a responsibility to be able to report on.

As for "whipping up stats', the GE portal reports 30 minute consumption and the inverter reports on a per minute basis. So I have plenty of stats. 

Diverting the responsibility to the equipment manufacturer is not acceptable. I will contact GE who will no doubt refer me to OVO.

The unknown in this situation is Kaluza who manage the scheme on behalf of OVO.

I will keep digging.

If OVO isn’t getting the data, then chances are neither is Kaluza (which is OVO’s sister company). That almost always means the root cause lies upstream from Kaluza, which likely explains why the Solar Team suggested contacting Giv Energy.

They’re the ones who can see what’s being sent out via their API. I’ve known multiple EV manufacturers cough, cough Hyundai/Kia have a terrible system that spits out almost garbage data to Enode on a regular basis, which knocks out basically every Smart Charging setup in Europe…

The problems aren’t always as obvious as they first seem I’m afraid. Just because the first-party tools appear to be working fine, doesn’t mean the API for third-party tools is also working properly - they’re almost always two separate “things” so to speak and one can easily go offline without affecting the other.

Pretty much the only service I know of that has both users using the first party official app/client and third-party tools/bots/scripts from external developers use the exact same API is Discord because that’s basically just how they built it… Which also means if the API goes down, it knocks out everyone and everything at once.