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Updated on 14/11/24 by Abby_OVO

 

Check out our dedicated RTS FAQs page for more information.

 

RTS Shutdown Update July 2024

 

Hey! The name’s 186, Blastoise186 and I’m one of the Forum Volunteers who you’ve maybe seen helping around here. I’ve been working with OVO to get the most up to date information possible for you and they’ve passed over the following helpful updates and details.

One of the recent hot questions we’ve seen on the Forum (for a while now) is what’s happening to RTS meters. The RTS (Radio Teleswitch Service) is shutting down soon, which especially affects complex ones like THTC (Total Heat Total Control). I’ve covered this before in one of my older posts linked below – so check that out if you’re interested in why this is happening. That post already has many questions covered, so this one will focus purely on the next steps.

If you’re interested in what all the different meter types are/were - just ask below. Not sure if you’ve got RTS? No problem – give OVO a ring and they’ll be able to let you know. You can reach out to them here.

All caught up? Great, let’s get started on this latest update. This is the final piece of the puzzle - the hot off the press information about exactly what’s happening next.

I’d like to apologise for the extended delay in getting this out. While I can - and do - act independently of OVO, such critical content like this still has to be reviewed and approved before it can go live to make sure it’s as accurate as possible. 

So without further ado, the big question…

 

I’ve got an RTS Meter, what are my options for smart meters?

Good question – as you may know, these meters can be pretty complex, but OVO have spent a good amount of time updating their systems to manage this change for their customers.

I’m pleased to finally reveal what OVO’s plans are for everyone with an RTS Meter, whether it be Economy 7, Economy 10, THTC (Total Heat Total Control), Total Living Control, Standard Economy & Heating Load, Heatwise, Storage Heating Control, Flexiheat, Superdeal or basically any other RTS Meter.

The long story short version is exactly what many of you wanted to hear - OVO will be contacting all RTS customers to sort the change to a non RTS meter. Even better, since everything will run locally and be controlled by the meter itself, your heating and hot water will continue to work even if the signal to the meter temporarily drops out.

But what will you get?

If you’re ready to upgrade and your meter is listed below as upgradeable, check out smart-booking.ovoenergy.com

With another supplier? Please contact their customer service team for this as OVO can only upgrade meters belonging to OVO customers.

 

Affected OVO supported RTS Meters/Tariffs

If you AREN’T in a LMA (Load Managed Area*) - 

*A Load Managed Area is an area that's not as easy to maintain, like small islands or densely populated communities

 

Economy 7

Available now!

All customers with an Economy 7 (both RTS and Non-RTS) are eligible for smart meters. Everything else will stay the same - it’s just a straightforward meter swap in 99% of cases.

 

Economy 10

Available now!

OVO has just started to roll out Economy 10 support on smart meters. You should have already had a letter to arrange this change, if not, give OVO a call on 0330 303 5063.

 

All other RTS meters (THTC, Superdeal etc)

Coming Soon

Here are the 2 possible routes you could go down.

 

Coming Soon – Rollout with OVO starts around August 2024

Good news! In this situation, you can go for Economy 7, Economy 9, Economy 10 or a single rate meter - totally up to you. Your letter will invite you to call OVO’s specialist team who are on hand to discuss the set up within your property. They’ll help you come to a decision that best suits your lifestyle.

As part of the process, your THTC meters will be taken out and replaced with a shiny new smart meter (where possible) running on whichever tariff you picked.

 

If you ARE in a Load Managed Area

Coming soon! Waiting for an availability estimate

For this small group in Northern Scotland, I’m afraid you’ll have to remain on THTC at this time due to the DNO restrictions that are still in effect. However, you’re still going to get smart meters as promised - OVO are working on a solution for you and will post more information as soon as possible

 

RTS Meters/Tariffs from other suppliers

No details yet - feel free to help me build this out. If you’re with any other supplier and have info on what’s happening to your meter, feel free to post the details below and if it looks good, I’ll add it here - with full credit of course.

 

What if I don’t want a smart meter and/or refuse to have the upgrade?

If you don’t want the upgrade, then the RTS Service will eventually end regardless, and I’m really sorry, but I can’t guarantee what’ll happen to your heating and/or hot water, so I strongly recommend against taking that risk. These changes must happen and must happen soon.

All I can say is that many of these RTS Meters are getting older now, and while the designers did include fail-safes to cover RTS Service outages, these were only designed for short-term outages - not a total and permanent shutdown. Just as I can’t guarantee what’ll happen to your heating and hot water, OVO can’t guarantee how long the fail-safe will last for - or if it’ll even work at all on your specific meter.

Forum Volunteers on The OVO Forum may also be unable to provide advice and support for these meters post end-of-life to the same extent as we have previously, which means we’ll probably recommend you go direct to smart meters. We’ll still try to help out if we can - but our options would be limited.

 

If you have any further questions, please do leave a comment and one of the OVO moderators will chase this up for us.

It takes up to six weeks before everything settles in properly following a meter swap. Taking a refund during that time is generally not recommended - it’s best to leave the credit in the account until after the six weeks are up.

At very least, we strongly recommend you wait for the first bill that references the new meter before considering taking a refund.

HM…

that first bill could be THAT bad ?!

it had better be accurate : not yet convinced the switching prices/times for E10 setup is actually doing its thing properly - and hard to monitor right now : yes, early days, but I’m watching !!!

 

 

Have been manually monitoring daily/hourly consumption via the visual display/monitor -​​​
​​​​​

While the IHD (what we usually call the ‘visual display/monitor’) can be helpful as an indication of what’s going on, it’s not a really good way of checking whether your bills are accurate. Think of it as a quick reference, not an accurate representation.

  

...the minimal figures showing up on our account pages so far despite the blurb assuring me that our meter  IS  sending in readings “every half-hour”  …  I’m not happy that putting up accurate figures to my account is simply not being done … 
​​​

First, ‘readings every half hour’. This is just one of the misleading terms I come across when dealing with electricity consumption. This should be posted somewhere:
  

The set of options available conflates two distinct processes. Sadly, they’ve been cobbled together in many places and lumped under a generic term ‘readings’.  There are three choices for a ‘reading’ schedule: half-hourly, daily or monthly. This is what I think they involve:
 

Selected
schedule  		 What it prescribes
for usage data		 What it prescribes
for meter readings
Half-hourly 48 quantities each day 1 reading each day
Daily None 1 reading each day
Monthly None 1 reading each month

 

The first is the most useful for everyone concerned. The second makes live billing really helpful, with a new accurate balance each day so there’s no doubt how the account is doing. You only have to subtract yesterday’s reading from today’s to get the daily usage, which will be very close to the sum of the 48 Hh figures. The third is the minimum required for a monthly billing schedule, which is the only one available to OVO customers.

Ofgem have laid down the law about this, so that Hh data is the default for new customers/meters. 

  
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘minimal figures ...’. When your account is up and running smoothly, you should see meter readings listed  by peak and offpeak register on the Meter readings page. These are the numbers used to calculate your bill.

You should see usage data on the … errr …  Usage pages. Half-hourly figures are on the Day tab, below the pretty bar chart.

If either of these listings is missing or incomplete, be patient. They should settle down eventually. A major change like installing a new type of meter on a completely different contract involves a great deal of deskwork, some of it manual. Different bits of the system have to be updated, ranging from the people responsible for preparing bills to the devs responsible for the website, the data service provider who pushes information about your setup around the industry, and the National Database itself which tries to keep track of every electricity meter in the country with details of where it is, who owns it and how it’s configured. All of those updates happen independently and at different speeds; to me it’s amazing that in most cases, the process is completed in six weeks. 

 

My dad's bill for last month only went to the manual readings I entered on meter change date, nothing for the following week. I contacted OVO via chat to ensure smart meter readings being received. I was told they can see the 30 minute readings and all working fine, but will take up to 6 weeks to get everything configured and updated. Also cannot see usage on online account yet but IHD seems fine.

Just downloaded my first bill since changeover from THTC to Econ10.  The bill purports to be for the usual full month (it has 31 days of Standing Charge) but only details the two old meters - there’s absolutely no mention of the week and a half’s worth of Econ 10.  Daresay it’ll be sorted in later bill(s).

I'm 2 months in on my new smartmeter. Haven't had a bill for it yet, only a part month from my THTC meters. My IHD seems to be working as it should and it's quite interesting to keep an eye on it to see what racks up the biggest use.  My smartmeter has 2 tarrif rates which i have checked a few times to confirm the switch between rates. It gives me individual counts of how much energy has been used on both tarrifs and tells me what this will cost in total.  I can see on my OVO account the auto readings, 2 per day, 1 for each rate. I can't yet see usage as it says my system isn't supported. My bill for last month is just the standing charge, so far. I'm actually quite pleased with how it has gone and not unduly worried about the time to update everything, the money's there for when it happens and all the readings marry up so all good. Of course it helped that the installation engineer walked us through it all very simply as we had the same fears as most folk about the change. This forum also helped immensely.  We are in Dundee, Scotland.

It’s great to hear that everything’s working as expected (well, almost) 🙂

  

I can't yet see usage as it says my system isn't supported.
  

What is the exact wording of that message? I ask because it sounds odd …

With any luck, you’ll be able to access this sub-page of your Profile page: Edit meter reads frequency - OVO Energy You’ll only see half-hour usage data if the top option is selected. It’s supposed to be selected by default, but we’ve seen evidence that this isn’t always the case.

I can’t think of any reason not to select the Settlement half-hourly option, too.

 

 

The message is as follows:

Usage

Your meter setup isn't supported

Right now, we can't show a usage graph for your meter setup. We're working on improving this, but in the meantime you can see your energy consumption on your bills.

The edit meter reads frequency is set at 1/2 hrly for both frequency and settlement.

 

The edit meter reads frequency is set at 1/2 hrly for both frequency and settlement.
  

That’s good.

  

Your meter setup isn't supported ...
  

That’s not so good. I’m guessing that this is because you’re coming off a complicated two-meter THTC system, whereas the usage stuff can only cope with one meter at a time. Until the changes to your supply have made their way on to the national database (remove one meter, change the configuration of the other), you’ll have to do without the usage data at the website. Those database updates don’t always happen as quickly as you’d like ...

You may be able to download the half-hourly usage data with the help of a third-party app or utility, if you’re really keen. Here are some suggestions (there’s quite a bit of reading accumulated over the years, but what’s at the end won’t necessarily make sense unless you’ve at least skimmed what goes before):
  
Energy usage data from third party Apps: Ivie, Loop and Hugo - my guide
Can I access downloadable usage data for prior year?
Can we get access to the OVO energy online account API to download our smart meter usage data?  

 

 

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