RTS (Radio Teleswitch Service) Shutdown Update

Well…. good for Power Move no doubt, (if you can still do PM now), but does make it harder to differentiate usage in the other half-hour timeslots.

I’m just glad that my shower runs on the gas combi-boiler, the 07:30 and 15:00 timeslots here both include showers. The spike at 08:00/08:30 is a fan heater.

Firedog, was told by THTC meter change team that the engineer would set up everything to work on off peak time at chosen tariff, that's why they need to know tariff and type of heaters and appliances.

https://tradehelp.gdhv.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/79000138589-how-do-i-set-charge-times-on-my-qmrf- this shows dimples quantum can be programmed with multiple charging periods.

I am not sure how the new meter works, will be interesting to see.

Anyway might be a while, as after 45 mins on phone yesterday and speaking to third person, none of who knew what THTC or RTS was, I was told I would be contacted when an appt became available.

So my next move when I have an hour of my life to give away will be to call to make an appointment for my other relative. Maybe next week, and if I get to speak to proper team, will also try  and make an appointment for my dad.

Well that was a wasted day!

Appointment set for yesterday from 12:00, waited in all day and no show by the engineer.  No phone call, no text, nothing!  Then to rub salt into the wound, I received a text last night asking me to rate the engineer who installed my new meter! That got a big fat nil points.

Called today to rearrange a new appointment only to be told they need to wait until they receive the engineers report and the system updated.  When will that be? That will be in 10 days time! What - 10 days for the engineer to send in a report that he didnt fit the meter. You couldnt make it up. I was offered an apology and £30 compensation for the no show.  So I will have to wait until 21 October before I can rearrange a new appointment and goodness knows when  a slot will be available.

The industry has 800,000 RTS meter replacements to install by June 2025 - not a chance, based on my experience so far.  Come on OVO you have to up your game here, your processes leave a lot to be desired.

Will keep you all informed as to the next installment.

Welcome to the no-show club bro ! At least I DO have another slot booked - let’s hope ?!

[and good luck for your next appointment.] Happy days...

Well, complete lack of liaison between OVO & DNO has resulted in my second appointment to be cancelled by OVO! I told OVO that DNO had been & fixed the problem that needed to be rectified before a smart meter fitting but that was ignored hence OVO have cancelled the meter fitting. I have an existing complaint with OVO in that I have not had any proper billing since last March & a large credit balance they will not repay, so do not want a smart meter until that is sorted. A next year fitting?

When you booked your new appointment was it more than 10 days after your previous appointment date?  If not, were you told you needed to wait up to 10 days before a new appointment could be given?

You have got better figures than me 😥.    I phoned them on Friday to ask to get my THTC set up changed to a smart meter on Economy 10 and got quoted

Standing charge 59.95

Peak  0.2492

Off Peak. 0.2025

• Vat?

Location?

Just a quick heads up - don’t forget that Northern Scotland and Southern Scotland are two different MPAN Areas, so have different rates, partially because they’re managed by two different DNO’s as well.

It’s not clear who you’re replying to here. I think both @Mo59  and @thelearner  are in Northern Scotland (Scottish Hydro region 17, otherwise P), while @johndebs  is in darkest Gloucestershire (probably West Midlands region 14 or E).

This just illustrates that it’s a really good idea when writing about timings and rates to give the region concerned. The two-digit number (here 17 or 14) is at the beginning of the MPAN’s bottom line. The MPAN is always given on bills; but the 13-digit number can for many customers now be seen on the meter read settings page, unhelpfully labelled Electricity meter: serial … (unhelpfully, because the Meter Serial Number, MSN, is a different animal altogether, shown on the meter itself and unique to it).

I am NE Scotland post code AB43. Still don't have appointment yet for meter replacement.

Hi there, first time poster, thanks for all the help and reassurances given in this thread that I’ve had a read through.

I’ve got my appointment in a couple of weeks. 

On reading back then disappointing to read that some people have had problems, eg a new meter but not programmed to E10 as requested and set up as a single tarrif.

Is there any easy way for us to check that things have been set up as they are supposed to be, that we can do before the engineer leaves ? 

Perhaps something to check on the meter or the IHD that will show the meter is set up as E10 or E7, etc ?

There is a way @ManseRunner , which is to check what the meter is doing during an E10 Off-Peak period. That’s the easiest option.

Sadly, I don’t think there is, but I wish there were. The engineer will do what he’s supposed to do, and the app he uses will tell him whether everything’s all right or not. He won’t leave until all his boxes are ticked.

The faults you’ve read about are all - I think - ones that can only be corrected remotely by the smart team at HQ. They aren’t necessarily caused by the engineer doing something wrong.

This is supposing, of course, that communications are established, and this you can check for yourself on the meter by looking at the LED indicators on the communications hub on top of the meter. It may take some time for this to happen, so don’t panic immediately. The engineer will try and wait a bit, but not for long. You’re hoping to see the WAN and HAN LEDs flash at five-second intervals.

I’ll say again:  it’s a really good idea when posting here to give the region concerned. If you don’t know which region you’re in, this map may help.

Do you mean to check if it is charging the storage heaters ? My heaters don’t have an indicator to show whether or not they are are charging. Plus depending on the time the engineer comes, it may not be in an off-peak period. 
I was wondering more if there was something simple like a sequence of buttons on the IHD, for example, that would show whether you were on 1 or 2 tarrifs, and what those tarrifs were - I could then compare those with what my E10 tarrifs are.

Ahh apologies, I must have mis-understood. 
I’m in North Scotland, which I knew could be important if I had a specific query about tarrifs or appointments, etc but thought that as my query was quite generic it wouldn’t matter. Will ensure I include it in any future posts 👍

You should be able to ask the engineer to show you how to check what’s active - or we can if needed but we can only do that once it’s been installed.

Thanks - I’d guessed you were north of the border, because we don’t have many manses to run to or from down here 🙂 

However, it matters in all sorts of respects. For example, smart meters use a way of communicating in the northern half of Britain different from the rest further south. This means that they have a different sort of communications hub (CH), one with only two LEDs. I was about to write that the LEDs will flash at five-second intervals, but then I remembered that this might be confusing for a customer in the southern zone, because their CH has five LEDs, at least two of which should be flashing.

A bit like “In Scotland, the cows are black.”   

I’d like to know if there is any overall project plan for the installations? I would have expected that a project plan with numbers of customers in each area would be the basis of scheduling, with a plan to cover all before June; and that the poor folk on the end of the phone could be made aware of the month in which a particular area is expected to be covered. Then they would not have to deal with so many unhappy customers when they cannot give any information other than there are no appointments available now in an area.  From the outside it seems like a big project that is not being managed well, and may not be adequately resourced.

Another point I would like to have answered  is the question of THTC continuing in load managed areas- can you tell me how I would know if we were in the load managed area (MPAN starts 17)?

THanks

AFAIK there is indeed one, but it’s not something that can be shared publicly, apologies.

But it is complicated because some customers will inevitably literally hold out until the very last minute…

If you’re in MPAN Area 17, you might have to remain on THTC post-migration, or you might be removed from THTC post-migration. The only way to know for sure is to attempt to book the upgrade. There are no public maps of LMA’s, sorry.

They’re also a moving target, making things even more complicated. A map today could be outdated tomorrow.

Just a quick update on my resheduled meter appointment.  As stated earlier, my previous appointment was a “no show” by the engineer and was told to wait 10 days before trying to reschedule. Good news, I received an email from OVO today saying I was to receive £30 compensation and to phone and make a new apppointment.  I did this and was given a range of appointments from 6th November.  I did ask for one in the morning to try and ensure that I was not the last appointment of the day and maybe get another “no show”.  All done and confirmed with Economy 10 tariff:

Standing charge 59.95

Peak  0.2492

Off Peak. 0.2025

all excluding vat

and hours as stated on the OVO website for MPAN region 17.

Fingers crossed all goes well this time.

well done - it can be done !   Best of luck for a successful installation and setup as well.

We finally got our installation/meter replacement earlier this week and I’m glad to say the engineer visit went smoothly. Very proficient and professional. All seems to be ok so far.

Very early days yet so we are monitoring carefully ! but everything is still working - we think !

The new E10 tariff appears to be working ok too  - though it is tricky to know if all the Off-Peak times ARE set up properly and performing as they should. Hard to judge right now … and we won’t get a “bill” for some time - apparantly - so all fingers crossed.

But overall - encouraged that it CAN be done. Its another waiting game now to see if it has all been a success. Let’s hope so … More as and when.