Who is responsible for moving meter cables?

I cannot see an earth lead in this photo. A earth wire would usually be solid green or green/yellow. The earth wire does not usually connect to the meter, just the live and neutral do. The earth connection just goes to the conusmer side sockets etc. On that basis not sure why OVO need an earth connection moved unless there is a wire/connector next to the meter preventing insillation.

I was shown by the OVO engineer that the brown cable is the earth. He said that in order to install the new smart meter this has to be moved to the other side where there is a similar black box. He said that if he was to install the meter with this in the current position it would mean breaking the earth and would mean that house would be live. He issued me with a safety warning notice detailing that. 

The brown cable is not an earth but I think they may have been talking about the box labelled ‘NE’ 

you can see an earth (yellow/green) cable coming out of the top which seems to indicate the incoming neutral being used as an earth (fairly common).

If anything is in the way of a replacement meter install, I would have thought it to be the live cables in the light coloured box above the NE connection 

That has the brown live feed from the meter so could (in my view) be moved by the meter installer

Hey @Flora48, 

I’ve tagged one of our engineers @Lukepeniket_OVO as they might be able to offer some insight into what’s required! It looks like we have a few other volunteers who’ve given up some time to help get to the bottom of this for you. 

Could you post a couple more photographs of the setup if possible, so we can see it from different perspectives? Sometimes it’s hard to give advice based on the first photo we see 😊

I just had a call from OVO telling me they have filled in a form for the energy network. I’m assuming SSEN to remove above seal. I asked who has going to move the earth which I was told by the OVO engineer is the brown cable on the right hand side but the OVO agent did not understand me. I’m confused as to why SSEN needs to remove this seal when it must have been SSE that put it in 

That’s brilliant thank you for your help 

Hey @Flora48, 

Thanks for uploading these and to @BPLightlog for the advice! Please keep us updated on getting this resolved 🙂

Here is a follow up to this situation. OVO asked SSEN to look at the cables which they did. SSEN said this “team attended and there is no defect on our side, our engineers reported 'there is an earth block issue but on metering side so not for us to touch'.  By our licence conditions we are not allowed to work on metering equipment, likewise metering are authorised to pull fuses on our equipment but can't do any other work.”

However yesterday my smart meter installation which I require to fix the problem created by OVO previously which has caused my economy 7 to stop working was cancelled. When I phoned to enquire why I was told repeatedly by an OVO operator that “ you have to move the earth cable because we can’t install a smart meter until then”

I then contacted SSEN who replied with the above at the same time SSEN (again) copied the response to OVO. I should mention that when the cancelled smart meter was booked the previous response from SSEN was attached to my account and the operator agreed that the job could be done!  Because my economy 7 is no longer working due to an OVO key overwrite it’s now costing me £2.50 to heat up the hot water heater manual for one hour and the water isn’t even very hot! 
 

I have been waiting since early October to have this fixed but now OVO will not book it. I have raised a complaint (again)
 

I’m sorry to hear you’ve had to raise another complaint ​@Flora48. If you don’t get an adequate resolution from the complaints team there is the option to escalate the complaint. You can find out more here. 

I have to say that I disagree with the report from SSEN. 
The main cable from their cable incomer goes directly into that earth block (it’s actually an N/E - Neutral Earth connection) and as such is before the meter, not after it. 
 

It may be one of these tricky situations where SSEN and OVO have to make a joint appointment as I can see that the earth disconnection would be a problem for the installation even though it is before the meter

Thanks for your help. One thing I don’t understand is why have I had 2 smart meters installed on exactly the same cable set up before? They were removed later because they weren’t communicating 

If you are talking about 2 previous versions and wondering why more space is needed, the newer smart meters are slightly larger (they do vary) 

UPDATE 

So after months of trying to get this sorted I have now come to a deal end. The OVO engineer was booked for the 18th of December. Despite the complaints team having photos of the meter in advance the engineer still attended and immediately said he couldn’t do anything due to the earth cable. I then contacted SSEN who now say they could do a meter block whatever that is but not just now (?). Or I could get a special electrician to move the cable. As according to SSEN the cable is not faulty they will not be prepared to move it. I simply don’t have the money to be able to get specialist electricians to do the work. The housing authority do not have the ability to do the work and will also not do it because the wiring is not faulty. 
 

The meter was functioning perfectly until OVO did a key overwrite for a missed engineer appointment and OVO had started taking money from the meter for a wrongly billed amount without telling me. Also I was getting a smart meter because OVO pursued me for months telling me I would get a large bill if I didn’t get one (I have a key meter) eventually agreed I do have a key meter then sent me a large bill anyway. Then sent another larger bill last week. 
 

I have emailed OVO but they are now ignoring me. 
 

I have considered moving supplier as a last resort but I am thinking I might run into the same problem again with the cable. 
 

Ideas?
 

Changing supplier will NOT fix this because it very much looks like SSEN needs to do the work. This is not an OVO problem and no supplier under the sun can do this particular job.

I will ask ​@Lukepeniket_OVO for his opinion, however there will be caveats:

• It’s the 23rd December and 99% of OVO is closed right now - I can’t guarantee Luke being around or able to reply until the New Year
• Luke’s advice is probably the absolute best we can do here on the Forum - if he can’t help, I’m afraid we can’t advise further
• It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow, so no promises can be made about who’s around to action anything

Thank you Blastoise186. It’s very much looking like I’m stuck with this now. I had decided to leave it before when my economy 7 was working correctly but stupidly didn’t realise that a key overwrite was going to cause the malfunction. The main problem is that because of this my immersion water heater costs a fortune to run now because of this because it doesn’t work with the economy 7 time switch and neither does my heating. 

Heres the response from SSEN. :Looking at the notice given by OVO it is an electrician you need as they will be able to advise on the best way to move the earth connection so it is not interfering with the meter change.  

We can provide an earthing block at our cut out side (before the meter) but wouldn't do this at the moment as you have a current earthing arrangement that is potentially sufficient.

If you get a SELECT or NICEIC electrician to your property they should be able to let you know how it is meant to be installed.

Like I said I’m not prepared or able to pay for an electrician. 
This has wasted so much time and caused a huge amount of stress. 

And unfortunately, it’s just another reason why I hate Trad Prepay Meters - it’s almost impossible to get things done quickly with them regardless of supplier...

Hey ​@Flora48 

I’m sorry you’ve had such a negative experience.

I can see our community members have already provided helpful advice here. I just wanted to add the following topics which may be helpful:

 

• Who's responsible for what? A guide on who to contact to help maintain each part of your gas and electricity setup Tutorial

• Who owns what? - Your guide on cut outs, meters, fuses and who's responsible Tutorial

• Non-essential meter maintenance, relocation or removal - Engineering work we can arrange and job costs Tutorial

Update 

Last week the earth cable was moved by an electrician and on Wednesday OVO came to install the smart meter. However I had to leave for work before it was finished and left someone else to be in the house. When I got home I discovered the smart meter was not connected and there was no tariff showing on the main meter . I phoned OVO and after a few minutes from the end of the call they phoned back to say they would have to send an engineer again. 
This is exactly what I thought would happen once I got a smart meter because I had 2 previous meters which were eventually replaced with the key meter that was removed because they wouldn’t connect. This was when it was SSE. At the time it took a lengthy complaint procedure and at the end I was told by SSE that rural properties like mine are unsuitable for smart meters. 

Hey ​@Flora48, 

Thanks for the update. I'm glad you got the meter changed after such a stressful journey. Did the person you spoke to explain why it wasn't connecting? I know some newer communication hubs are coming this year to help customers like you whose meters won't connect.

What date is the next engineer booked for? 

Hi Chris_OVO

Thanks for your reply. No the person didn’t explain why but it seemed to be a concern that the HAN light was flashing red. The appointment is scheduled for the 28th. Strangely last night I noticed that the immersion water heater which previously had stopped switching on automatically during the night on the economy 7 tariff started working. 

Hey ​@Flora48 

Thanks for the update, has that continued to come on at night the last few nights since?

Hi Abby_OVO  

Thanks for your reply 

Yes the immersion water heater is now switching on every night at the economy 7 times and I have also noticed that the house is warmer  I have all Dimpex storage heating which are designed to use economy 10 or 7