Are any other Feed in Tariff (FiT) account holders not receiving the email request to submit their quarterly FIT readings?

It has become much easier in recent months. You can now call 0330 303 5063 from the phone number linked to your FiT Account and the system will route you to that team automatically if you’re FiT-Only, or offer FiT Support if you also have an energy supply with OVO.

Ovo is the company we now send our FIT results to.  We are currently in the period January-March and anticipate sending in the FIT reading on 31st March for this period.  However, we have now had an email stating FIT readings should be sent in in June.  What is going on?  Since 2011 we have submitted readings to SSE every 3 months.

I am just wondering WHY the FIT team has requested us to send in FIT readings in JUNE and not March as we had anticipated.  Was their email for June a mistake.  It would appear from the information provided by Jeffus that it is indeed a mistake.  I have copied the above info.

No dated 1st March 2023

This is the email I received on 1st March, hence Jeffus asking about the date. No correction/apology received as of 13:00 2nd March. Clearly the FIT Team Process is working overtime !

Thanks everyone - we have now had a revised email from OVO with the correct date.  It has come as a surprise that OVO has changed how long it keeps on our FIT money.  With SSE we had the money within 3 weeks of sending in the readings.  I suppose we will adjust to having to wait 8 weeks.  When we received the June email we thought there was another change in OVO’s favour.

That’s a big hole you are digging Blastoise - what about the hit to our bank balance ? As a percentage of my cash flow, OVO’s delayed / late / non payment of my FIT is enormous compared to OVO’s cash flow. I don’t recall SSE ever not getting reimbursed by Ofgem - certainly not since 2012 when I started claiming FIT payments (and getting paid within 3 weeks of submitting the reading !)

My understanding is that I have a watertight un-cancellable contract for my FIT payments (SEG may be different - it’s so low priced I don’t know why anyone bothers) until the end of the period. Do you know otherwise?

Delayed/Withheld Feed-in-Tariff payments

Those of us with delayed FIT payments have been reminded on several occasions that the FIT Team processes readings, statements and payments at different times of the year.  
In accordance with OVO’s published terms the Spring Quarter timing is thus:
Take/Process readings: March
Statements sent: End of April
Payments sent: End of May

As we are coming rapidly towards the end of April, will the FIT Team or an authorised representative acknowledge here (not on social media) that they are indeed sending out Statements for the Spring Quarter in the next several days with the view to making timely payments in May. From what I gather from other contributors on this Forum I will not be alone in expecting to also receive aggregated missing Statements and outstanding payments for Quarterly FIT readings submitted previously.

Delayed/Withheld Feed-in-Tariff payments

I don't work for OVO and am just a simple OVO customer who is keen to know where his missing FIT payments are………noting that the end of April has come and gone without a Statement appearing, I took it upon myself to phone the FIT team and ask what was happening. Amazingly I managed to get through to an actual FIT person with only a 10 minute delay to learn that the Spring Quarter Statements will be in the post by Friday of this week – 5th May – and that, in my case, the two outstanding Quarters will be paid at the end of May as per the process. A result in the offing ?……..maybe; watch this space…………………..😁

By the way,  0330 303 5063 works but there is still no “select 4 ” option available, nor a FIT Team option – you need to speak to a person and ask to be put through to the Team.
 

Well, a result of sorts : the OVO process advises that the Spring Quarter Statements will be “posted on (+3 working days for post): By the end of April”. With the 30th April being a Sunday combined with the surfeit of Bank Holidays around that time I was prepared for a short delay but as nothing had arrived by the 8th May I was beginning to sharpen my pencil.

Out of the blue, on Thursday 11th May an E-mail arrived from The FiT Team announcing “Here are your payments for 13th September 2022 to 4th March 2023” correctly showing my withheld generation readings from 13th September 2022 and correctly showing the Total Payment that I should expect to receive by the end of May “(+3 working days for bank processing)”…………...Just one final hurdle to overcome to achieve full reimbursement for 19,037 kWh x £0.3515/kWh plus deemed export!

For those wondering why I bother: I have a wind turbine on the North East Coast of Scotland where it tends to be a bit windy; I was compulsorily switched from SSE to OVO and when I submitted my first set of generation readings to OVO in September last, I was told that "The reading you're trying to submit is higher than we would expect". Quite how that expectation was derived from a first reading is a mystery but it all went downhill from there. No statement or payment forthcoming of course. For my second generation reading in March I was told “As our system has flagged this as being outside the expected range, we will review it before it is submitted for payment. We will get back in touch once this has been reviewed". Again, no contact, statement or payment forthcoming of course.

One last point to make as it’s interesting to read over the minutiae of OFGEM "In a process called ‘periodic levelisation’, scheme costs are met every quarter by all licensed electricity suppliers based on their share of the electricity supply market of Great Britain (GB). Depending on how much a licensee has paid FIT generators for generation and export, (Note the tense) they either pay money into or receive money from the levelisation fund. After the end of each FIT year, the ‘annual levelisation’ process reconciles the year’s periodic levelisations and ensures each FIT licensee has paid or received the right amount of money." 

Absolutely nothing there to suggest that OVO is obliged to get reimbursed by OFGEM first despite the obtuse view expressed in a post above that “The way OVO pays out is actually safer than the way SSE used to pay out. By waiting for Ofgem to hand over the cash first, OVO doesn’t have to risk taking a hit to its bank balance.” ……………enough said!

Maybe things are slowly improving, albeit from a very low threshold ! Has it got anything to do with Ofgem taking a more serious interest in OVO’s overall performance I wonder ? 

Anyway, I am pleased to report that I received two outstanding FIT payments for the correct amount, into my bank account yesterday ( 13th September 2022 to 4th March 2023), together with an email showing the correct FIT ID account number, announcing “It’s time to give us your quarterly reading from your generation meter (and export meter, if you have one). Please send your reading before 30th June 2023”.

Given my comment on my previous post I did have a chuckle at the throwaway remark on the email that says “The Ofgem process can take a little while” - bit of a misunderstanding about whose process is the problem I think !!

If anyone needs a good public domain read about OVO covering the period November 2013 to January 2020, I can recommend the following 46 pages: para 2.71 “Ovo’s actions and omissions significantly favoured its interests” is particularly interesting.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2020/04/notice_of_decision_to_impose_a_financial_penalty_on_ovo_dated_9_april_2020_0.pdf
 

Will there be a follow up I wonder - lessons learnt springs to mind !