Good evening @johnhspicer ,

Please note that this response was written by a Forum Volunteer who does not work for OVO.

This sounds like a pretty rare situation to me - and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it mentioned here on the Forum. To add context, the OVO Forum launched in around February 2017 and I’ve been here since around November 2020 so I’ve seen and read almost everything except for the really, really old stuff from the very early days. Chances are I’m pretty sure I’d remember if this had come up previously, but I can’t recall ever seeing anything similar on here.

So firstly, this is a long winded way of saying thanks for the unique question! We love these unique ones. :)

It does sound to me like OVO and yourself are both stuck between a rock and a hard place here. I can’t understand why you even had a Generation Meter installed without it having a Meter Serial Number in the first place - that’s supposed to be pretty much impossible as EVERY electric and gas meter in the UK is required to have one. I’m a bit surprised you’ve even lasted this long with it, let alone managed to get FiT Payments!

If memory serves, ALL meters - including Import, Generation and Export Meters - are owned by the Supplier and the Supplier is responsible for maintaining them as well as replacing them as and when required. The same applies to covering the cost of procurement, installation and replacement - that’s for the Supplier to do unless you require a “Non-Standard Install” which isn’t usually the case when setting up FiT/SEG.

I don’t know the process for this one, but I know someone who does. Please bear with me - I’ll flag this backstage on the Forum and someone will swing by again soon.

Thanks for taking a look, hopefully this will help get a resolution.

More than happy for OVO to fit a new meter that meets the requirements, just can’t understand why they didn’t say previously that that is what is needed. Or even tell me I had to pay to get it done (although I would have then checked where the responsibility really lay!).

These are… Complicated matters I’m afraid - and they’re not well documented (this isn’t strictly OVO’s fault either!). I think it’s just such a rare edge case that hardly anyone has thought of it, hence a possible reason why the agents you spoke to are struggling. But as far as I see things, you should never have been given that particular meter in the first place.

Hi @johnhspicer , as Blastoise mentioned, it is rather strange to have any sort of meter without a serial number as these are used to validate readings by all suppliers.

Can you add anything further in terms of what sort of meter it is? (that might help narrow down the options).

In this case, the generation meter is not the general suppliers responsibility as it is not a ‘necessary’ component - I realise it is for you but not everybody has solar yet. In fact the solar installer should have fitted all the equipment and registered your specification (including the meter serial number) with Ofgem who maintain the register of micro generation equipment.

I have had solar for around 12 years and also had an upgrade to the system recently. On both occasions the installer fitted the generation meter (firstly for FIT and lastly as a ‘NET’ meter to record both generation and battery).

The serial number is registered OK, it’s just not visible now the meter is attached. The meter is a Sangamo SPA 01.

Hopefully OVO will chip in to this, even it is just to say that I need to sort an alternative meter with a visible serial number and need to pay for it. Which based on what you say about it not being a necessary component seems possible.

So there’s something obscuring the bottom half of the front plate?

You may need someone with reasonable knowledge in the FIT/SEG department to help

Top part looks very similar. But part of the frame of the meter covers where the serial number is on my meter! Can’t see any way of getting to it therefore, but bet the number is also on the back….

Unfortunately the photo I have is in HEIC format, and this site won’t allow me to attach it.

Hey @johnhspicer 

Tricky situation you’ve got on your hands, I’m sorry to hear this. 

I’d really like to see a photo of the meter so I can ask the best team for some help on this one. You can email the us photos at forum@ovoenergy.com, could you try sending the photo through that and hopefully we can help make some progress with this.

Thanks Abby.

Photo sent to that mail box. The photo is a few years old so meter read isn’t current, but that isn’t relevant for this discussion. 

Thanks @johnhspicer 

Got it, and it does make a lot more sense now I’ve seen these cases before on the rare occasion. I’ve added a screenshot of your photo into this thread for the others to see what you mean by it being enclosed and unable to access the serial number to view it.

I’m going to check with the team on this and see what they’re best advice is, I’ll pop back here as soon as I’ve heard back from them.

That bottom part of the window which is being obscured looks like it has been painted? (As does the top part)

A bit of Blue Peter sticky-backed plastic, perhaps? I don’t imagine you could get that hammered effect by painting.

Hammer finish paint ? Looks to me like the centre section has been masked and the rest painted - hammer finish

Hey @johnhspicer 

I heard back from the team and they’d like to look at getting this sorted for you. 

I’m going to reach out to you via private message for your details so I can pass these directly to the team.

You should be able to see your PMs here: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview. 

From what has been said so far I’d say that was a powder coated pressed-steel or aluminium enclosure that the meter has been fitted into to protect it from damage/vandalism/tampering.

It’s probably removable, with tools - but consumers are rightly told not to mess with meters.

We used to have a similar finish applied to metal toolboxes and the like when I worked for a truck body manufacturer - about the same shade of blue crinkle finish too.
It’s failry easy to get such a hammered effect just from the paint/powder coat used, it ‘bubbles’ in the baking oven and sets like that.

Edit- looking again it may be an injection moulded palstic one, but a few little details still tend me towards metal.
If you zoom in on the ‘window’ you can see it’s been cut a bit roughly in the recessed section, look at the top-right corner for example. It was possibly even done on site to suit the meter display. If it had been cut to the full recess size you would probably be able to see the serial # below the ‘Made in Great Britain’.

It feels like metal, and when tapped it sounds like very thin metal.

OVO via Abby have now picked this up, so I’ll update this thread once it is resolved/ if it cannot be resolved.

I said I’d drop an update here when resolved..

My thanks to Abby who has worked with the OVO team to update their records and accept for a couple more years at least that there is no visible serial number on the generation meter. What happens after that we’ll see.

And my thanks to those who contributed to this thread and helped confirm that it wasn’t me going crazy but that there was a problem, a casing that was covering the serial number. 

One of those very odd things that sometimes come up…...

Good news @johnhspicer  .. thanks for giving us an update

Hi @johnhspicer,

It’s great to hear that this has been resolved for you!

It seems I am in similar situation. This is the only meter I have since installation 6 years ago. Now I am being asked to provide serial number which is not there. This has been installed when feed in tariff was still on and export meter was not necessary. 

@Petergd , that meter type shows its serial number via the digital display. 

The manual shows how 

Thanks for the information. I was full of hope for a minute. I can see this meter can be set up to show the data but even after reading the manual I still dont know how to cycle display. By default it should cycle every 5s - not in my case though.

I’ve never operated one so can’t add I’m afraid. It looks like it may be a pre-set facility. There’s likely to be a s/n on the casing but as the unit is fitted, you can’t see that

I am just now having the same problem now. We are now in our 80s, just don’t understand what's going on. After 15 years of being happy just giving a reading or taking a photograph, the rules are being changed. This is what we have received.

Hello Frank,

Thank you for your email.

Email from OVO…….The picture you have provided shows an MSN number: -------- (the number on top of the barcode is the Meter Serial Number which is on every meter, this number is not a model number or anything else). The Generation Meter Serial Number on your MCS certificate as you yourself has stated is incorrectly ---------. This number on the certificate needs to be in line with your actual MSN on your meter which we have established is --------, legally the MCS certificate needs to be the same as your meter so that it is accurately presenting your meter in the national database.

With this in mind, when there is such a discrepancy, we usually question if you have changed your meter and just have not notified us. You have clarified that your meter has never changed, if this is correct it means the MCS certificate needs to be updated to display the correct MSN number displayed on your meter (--------) and then you would need to send that to us so we can update those details on our records and the national database.

The way you would do that is you would need to contact the MCS service company and request for them to change the MSN on the certificate, once they have done that they would re-send you an up to date MCS certificate in which you would send back to us so we can update your account accurately.

Being an old pensioner, this is causing me great anxiety as well as looking after my wife. We need every penny and after doing the “right thing” 15 years ago I’m beside myself with worry. Someone please help.

Hi @MR F H CORMIER , there may well be a few here who could try to clarify things. 
If you could just explain a bit more .. are you sending a Solar generation reading or an Export reading ? A picture would help. 
For Solar generation, your meter would have a serial number which often gets asked for along with the reading when providing your quarterly update. 
For Export, this would usually be taken from your Smart meter (if you have one fitted).

From your post above, it sounds like there is an issue with a different serial number on the MCS certificate compared to your meter? Has anyone mentioned this before?