Applied for OVO's smart export guarantee (SEG) - how long till it's set up?

I sent my application in on 27th April. I called the FIT team last week and was told that he couldn’t give me an update and had no idea when my application would be sorted and just to wait as they are taking a long time. Wasn’t that helpful really! 

I think you are correct.

You’ve probably checked @JohnDB but it has to be the MPAN for export, not your normal supply MPAN

Nope, they’re always different no matter what meter types are used.

OK I get it now.  There are separate import and export MPAN’s for the same smart meter at an address.

How can I find out what the glitch might be which is stopping OVO from telling me my export MPAN?  I cannot find out a tel no or URL for making such inquiries to OVO.

I sent in all my documents in January. My installer provided a DNO from sp manweb and a pdf of the connection agreement. SP manweb also supplied a MPAN export number. I keep getting emails saying I haven’t supplied a DNO. I have called, emailed etc sent the documents numerous times but I just keep getting the same email saying they need a DNO in order to apply for an MPAN number. It’s like talking to a robot. I ask them to review the documents and the ask me to send a DNO. I’ve missed about £140 of seg so far. Got another email today asking for a DNO so they can apply for an MPAN number which I’ve sent them 5 times. The latest email says if I don’t send the information in ten days they will close the application. I don’t know what else to do

Two months after I made a SEG Application to OVO I lost patience with them.  All they could tell me on the progress of my application was a very general response that they were terribly busy.  I eventually found out how to email my DNO who replied within a few days, giving me my allocated export MPAN.  After a pause to be poorly for a while, I applied to transfer to Octopus, for both my gas and electricity consumption and my solar panel export (15p per kWh fixed).  After some web searching to find out how to read my two smart meters for units used to date (not obvious when faced with just the meters and no guidance), I am now with Octopus and am waiting to be told when I shall be paid for electricity exported.  I also have a credit balance with OVO that should now be repaid.  So I am nearing the end of my saga and am beginning to gain good experiences as a new customer of Octopus.

The answer to the long delays from Ovo is for them to employ more staff and for them to have a dedicated phone line for the SEG team... COME ON OVO - MAKE US SOME HAPPY CUSTOMERS!! 

Based on my experience, anyone who gets any money from OVO for the Smart Export Guarantee in less than a year after applying for it will be doing well! I submitted my application, with all the required supporting docs, (MPAN and DNO were definitely in place) on 29th September last year (2022) and I still haven’t received a penny! It took me numerous emails and phone calls before I finally got confirmation that my application was accepted and I was signed up; finally on 20th June this year I got an email requesting an export reading. Rather ridiculously, given I have a smart meter (of course, you cannot get the SEG without one) I have to submit export readings manually every three months. I submitted my reading immediately, but didn’t get a confirmation of the amount owed me until 16th August, and that payment still hasn’t been made. (One positive note - the full amount of electricity exported since my solar panels were installed is going to be paid, i.e. the payment is backdated to the beginning.) Based on all this, and the pitiful rate paid for the electricity exported (4p/kwh vs 30p+/kwh to import) my advice would be to set up a contract with another supplier for SEG (probably Octopus) and steer clear of OVO - they clearly haven’t taken the support of SEG payments seriously, perhaps as others have suggested because there is no incentive for them to do so.

Hi @Dave V welcome to the Forum.

I’m really sorry to hear about this delay with your SEG.

We don’t have access to this here at the Forum. We’d recommend emailing the team to ask them about this and see what’s causing such a delay, you can email the team on seg@ovoenergy.com.

I do know that the team is genuinely very busy, and there are others affected by delays too, I’ve linked below to some similar topics. You can raise a complaint about this if you’ve not already done so.

Hi I’ve waited 3 months so far. Service from the SEG team, which appears to be outsourced is shocking. Difficulties with language and interpretation. OVO a leading supplier of energy in the UK and you offer a service that is exceptional in one way. Appalling bad. I think the best thing for anyone thinking of applying for SEG with OVO is to change to another supplier. I have seen messages like this going back for over a year in OVO forums 

On 3 Aug 23 by letter I was advised that my account would be moved from SSE where I had been a long standing supplying FIT customer. The letter indicated I could relax (ha, ha) while they take care of everything and all was in safe hands. These turn out to be valueless platitudes.

I have heard nothing further from OVO with regard to the so called migration and yet I understand the SSE FIT office has long since closed down.

I have sent in readings but had the response, repeated later to the effect they are too busy to respond. The only non automated (possibly) response indicated there was no record of my account. Nevertheless my FIT ID was correct when they wrote on 3Aug.

In a long and effectively time wasted phone call today, 3 months after migration was apparently started, I was told nothing could be done until migration is complete. I could be given no idea when that might be. There was no supervisor I could talk to apart from a complaint being raised within the office nothing could be done.

I have now made a complaint to OVO but have no confidence I will get any kind of response.

Are there others in this position? Any ideas on progressing the matter further would be appreciated.

Simon

Thanks Jeffus. My intention is to move to Octopus but I am not sure that I can do that while the so called migration to OVO is (possibly) happening. But I will check.