How do I move energy suppliers when I have an exotic meter with OVO?

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but there have been some recent announcements about that type of meter set. 
As far as I’m aware, no other supplier currently supports those meters 

Yep I have seen, but what is the process that I need to go through to move suppliers? Can I get an electrician to remove or replace the meter or is that down to OVO? 

As the guide suggests, depending on exactly what meters you have there are options to ask for a smart meter change or await details from OVO for the next step. 
All details are in the guide I linked above - a ‘standard’ electrician is not allowed to change meters

So to change the meter with the intention of changing supplier I have no other option but to go through OVO for them to change the meter? 

Correct. Only the active Supplier can do this. And even then, we cannot promise that other suppliers will take you on anyway.

I tried to leave a few years ago I went to The Cooperative but they said they couldn’t support my meter and I needed to return to SSE, could they have replaced the meter when I was with them or were they right to send me back to SSE. They said that only SSE could charge it? Was this the right information? 

Not surprised there - but the info was correct. If that supplier rejected you (oh, and they no longer exist btw), then you’d have been bounced back - SSE would have had to do it.

As mentioned, if the supplier won’t take you on, they won’t touch anything. Additionally, the Co-Op would have never had the required resources to swap such meters anyway.

Sorry, just to clarify The cooperative couldn’t change my meter it had to be SSE?
 

If that was the case why couldn’t the cooperative change it? 

Because ultimately, the required meters to swap it didn’t exist back then - Co-Op definitely didn’t have access to anything suitable, I know that much. And IIRC hardly any supplier other than SSE and Scottish Power knew much about most RTS Meter types.

They took me on for two years, but could never get the billing to work properly so they sent me back to SSE in 2015 and advised me to ask SSE to change the meters. They did change them for exactly the same set up - but new meters. They changed the meters in 2017, so smart meters and eco 10 were available then. 

Any ideas why they replaced the meter with the same set up? 

We will never know as both suppliers no longer exist  

Am I right that the technology was there in 2017 for SSE to change the set up to eco 10, and replace the exotic meter, or am I wrong? 

It would have been way too early for that.

But SSE announced in April 2014, so three years before they changed my meters that they were offering it to customers, why wouldn’t it have been available to me? 

They definitely knew in 2017 that the rts meters were being phased out? 

There were discussions about phasing out RTS in 2017, but the industry never actually got the ball rolling at that time.

That we cannot say. The answer has been lost to the sands of time.

The tariffs for exotic meters are so much higher than for eco ten, especially as you can’t take advantage of the cheaper rate for all your electricity- Am I being cynical to suggest it was to keep me tied to a higher tariff with no option to move? 

No, it is not. Besides the fact energy suppliers have razor thin profit margins (it’s generators that have fat profit margins, not suppliers!), these exotic meters pre-date the entire current system. We’re talking of a legacy era when Electricity Boards were still a thing and a single entity had a total grip over an entire region - they are the ones you should blame instead.

OVO also has to pay sky-high prices in order to get you supplied if you’re on exotic meters, they’re forced to pass that onto you, it’s not exactly like they have a choice…

The fact that no other supplier wants to take you on is a matter FAR beyond OVO’s control - that’s a business decision for each individual supplier to make by themselves.

I’m really confused by your response. The key issues are:

 If other energy suppliers can’t take on customers with exotic meters on then OVO not changing the meter when requested is denying me access to the open market. Especially as no other company can change the meter. 

and if as you have said above  OvO pass on the cost to me for an antiquated system- where there is a cheaper alternative  it means they are not looking after me as a customer by forcing me to pay more than I need to, so they are still profiting from me as a customer, they are just passing on the extra costs to me. 
 

Surely if what you have said above is accurate they would be desperate to change customers to smart meters and Eco 10 tariffs rather than keeping customers on these meters and having to extend the deadline. 
 

besides according to Ofgem OVO only has 35 customers with restricted meters (which I don’t believe- I suspect that they didn’t migrate those customers over until the last minute to try to avoid taking account of them) 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/decision/supplier-compliance-requirements-customers-restricted-meters#:~:text=This%20requires%20all%20suppliers%20with,a%20customer%20has%20multiple%20meters.