Schedule of my storage heaters doesn't match the off-peak hours on my plan - Can you help me?

This is the chat results. No luck.

Hi ​@VOU30 - I’ve just been reading through this thread and I do apologise for the inconvenience and problems you’ve been dealing with trying to get this issue resolved.

I’d recommend carrying out the load test as advised by the agent above - The full load test breakdown and information you need to record can be found here: https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/meter-reading-problems

If you’ve already performed the load test and reached back out to support, was this taken further?

If they cannot then resolve your issue, or you run into any further problems with the support team after doing this, please let us know here. 

We’ll see if we can support further if necessary 👍

Without submitting the load test today, OVO has offered me an engineer appointment. I'm happy for that. Though I've already hired an private engineer which was advised by OVO. There nothing I can do now. He is on the way.

Here is my Engineer's report.

Good morning ​@VOU30,

I’m happy to hear that you’ve been offered an appointment by OVO. If you haven’t booked the appointment already I’d recommend that you call in to get this booked, as our Support Team will need to run through various questions to get the appointment booked in correctly. From what I’ve read it sounds as if you may need an appointment to fix the timeswitch in the meter, or replace the meter if this isn’t possible. 

Let us know how you get on!

They will come on 5th February. I'll post here about the update.

Thanks for keeping us and the thread posted ​@VOU30 

Was interesting to see the comments from the engineer appointment and hopefully now our internal engineers can come out and get this resolved once and for all.

Looking forward to seeing the results!

Hi again ​@VOU30, 

I’m hoping that our Support Team will have done all the relevant checks before booking the appointment, however we do occasionally see appointments booked incorrectly, especially under these sort of complex circumstances. ​@Firedog has pointed out the similarities between your current heating times and Economy 10 times, and I do agree with what he has suggested. 

There is a possibility that the meter is set to Economy 10, rather than being ‘faulty’. If this is the case then this can often be fixed remotely, without the need for an appointment. I’m wondering whether ​@Lukepeniket_OVO might be able to look into this further for you? It might be that the appointment has been booked in correctly, however it is also possible that we can save the wait, and the job, by fixing this remotely.

If that is possible it would be great. I am happy to provide any information if necessary.

There are two distinct settings:

*    The meter’s internal TOU matrix, which should be set to the times and rates dictated by the account’s plan. This changes the register that record consumption so that peak and offpeak usage are correctly reported.
*    The adjoined Auxiliary Load Control Switch (ALCS), which determines when the switched (“offpeak”) circuit is live.

In a properly-configured meter, the offpeak on/off times in these two separate settings will normally coincide. Just occasionally, they don’t, for whatever reason, and there may be a valid one.* If the timings are out of alignment for no good reason, - like here - it isn’t a fault, it’s misconfiguration, quickly corrected by an ECAUL request from OVO.    

Here’s one customer’s remark about getting the same sort of misconfiguration fixed:
 

The right solution? An ECAUL request to update the ALCS.

* E.g. on an Economy 10 tariff, the customer might not want the offpeak circuit activated during the last session of the day, because it’s not necessary to charge the storage heaters just then. He could instead use direct heating (panel or fan heaters, say) after 20:30 for a more comfortable experience at offpeak rates. I don’t know how difficult it is to vary a standard E10 ALCS configuration like this, but if it is doable, it might suit many E10 customers.

Just tagging ​@Lukepeniket_OVO 🙂

Engineer came today. And said meter is ok. The problem can be solved by the OVO remotely. I don't know how many more days they will take.

Sigh. 

An OVO engineer should have been able to call home and make the request while he was on site. A contractor might not have the same access or even know how to make it. 

Was the person who visited an OVO employee or a contractor from a different company? OVO’s vans are variously flashy, but I think they all feature the distinctive green colour and OVO logo, like this one:
  

He is from MDS.

That might explain why then. AFAIK OVO Engineers such as Luke can use the fancy hotline but contractor engineers I’ve spoken to previously can’t.

Twice I’ve had smart meters installed, and on both occasions the engineer spent much of the time on the phone to the mother ship while doing things with the meter. The second was an OVO man, but I’m not sure about the first. In any case, how do contracted engineers call up the over-the-air stuff when they need it? I seem to remember something like a BOAT-load of HQ staff who do nothing else. That’s probably not the right acronym, but I’m fairly sure it was ‘back office’ something. It could be that it’s all automated via the installation app now, of course.

The last time I witnessed an install taking place, it was via an SMS engineer who just whipped out a Panasonic Toughbook device and used an app on that to commission the Comms Hub, Meter and IHD without having to call anyone.

IIRC the OVO Engineer I had do my install (hi Ben!) back in 2021 simply used his smartphone to do it.

I know you've understand what the problem this. But OVO customer service is not understanding. I don't know what to do now.

Have you chatted with them since the last engineer visit last week? What did they say?

They asked me for 12 readings load test. And I did that. Than they Said my meter is okay.

Did they say what they were trying to find out? What readings did they ask for? At different times of day? Perhaps you could share the results with us.

From what you’ve told us before, there seemed to be no doubt that the offpeak register is only recording usage during the night, while all other usage - during the daytime - is recorded on the peak register. Did that change at all with these latest tests?

I honestly don’t know how to get you moved on from this silly situation. As ​ 

I think that moment has arrived, ​@Bradley_OVO 

Summery of Guy in the telephone is as the off-peak reading is not changing in peak hour so meter is okay. And there is nothing called ALCS. He never heard them.

Thanks for the flag ​@Firedog 

​@VOU30 Apologies that we’re back here and trying to get to the bottom of this matter. It is concerning that you’re being told all is OK, if things are not aligning. 

I am in no way an expert on any of this (I’m having my own issues with a heating system in my new home) so I’m reaching out to one of our internal contacts to ask them to come and review this thread and try and offer some advice on what next steps you can take with this matter.

I’ll reach out to you as soon as I hear back!

Hey ​@VOU30 & ​@Firedog,

I picked this up at the same time as ​@Bradley_OVO and i’ve also sent you a private message so I can gather a few details from you. If you get a second to reply i’d greatly appreciate it, you’ll find your messages here.

Thanks, for chipping in, ​@Chris_OVO 

This has become a long thread. I’ll summarize the issue as I see it here:

1.  The meter is an Aclara SGM 1416-B S/N 23M0051900 apparently correctly installed.
2. The customer asked to be put on Economy 7, but changed his mind a few days later and asked for Economy 10. It’s not clear whether this change started and got stuck in limbo, or the system was misconfigured from the start. In either case, the customer is prepared to settle for E7 after all, only because E10 was proving too difficult to configure.
3. Repeated load tests have shown only that the tariff is changing according to Economy 7 times (EMEB, GSP group _B, area 11) - offpeak all days 00:00-07:00.
4. Observations of both the storage heaters, their supply indicator lamps and the load control icons on the meter display have shown that the switched circuit is being energized at some times during daytime hours (and thus E7 peak-rate periods). 
5. The conclusion is that the meter’s ALCS is misconfigured and needs to be updated to reflect the E7 timings. It’s not at all clear what timings it’s currently set to, but in any event it should not be energizing the switched circuit during peak hours.
6. The support staff the customer has been in contact with neither understand the problem nor know how to remedy it. Expert intervention is sorely needed.