Solved

Does OVO offer financial support to cover energy used by mains-powered medical equipment?

R
Rank

How do I claim a bill reduction for medical (dialysis) apparatus that has to be on all the time? 

icon

Best answer by Jess_OVO 6 June 2022, 16:28

View original

10 replies

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hi there @Robert Pope !

I’m Blastoise186, one of the forum volunteers here. :)

I think this is possible to do via the Priority Services Register, and it’s definitely worth setting that up anyway so that OVO is aware of your medical equipment. If you give the Support Team a call on Monday on 0330 303 5063, they can discuss getting it all set up for you.

I’ll ask @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO to double check how to get the discount as well.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
R
Rank

Thank you very much, Blastoise 186. (Which was the Pokémon character my son likened me to!) That’s very helpful. I’d be grateful for any further info your connections can supply. And will try the Ovo telephone line - again - on Monday. All the best, Rob 

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hehehe, Blastoise is pretty popular!

In actual fact, I have more good news for you as well. After playing with the OVO Energy app on my phone last night, it definitely looks like you can set up the Priority Services Register stuff via the app. If you log in then go to Account, scroll down to Get In Touch and tap Priority Services Register, you can fill out the details and submit them from there - and use of a dialysis machine is definitely one of the options in step 2. Please excuse my comic sans inspired font though! The app won’t use the Choco Cooky font for you unless you want it to!

Could you give that a try and see if anything happens?

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
R
Rank

Thank you very much, Blastoise 186. You’re a more active character than I ever managed to be! Having already registered, I shall try to get to step 2 as shown. That looks as though it will do the job. Have a good rest of the weekend…  Rob 

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

No worries. :)

There’s six steps in total to complete and it shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes or so to go through, don’t forget to submit it at the end!

If you get badly stuck though, the Support Team will be able to help you out. I’m actually very, very tempted to write up a guide on how to use the app to set up PSR. Keep an eye out for it. :)

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
R
Rank

Thanks again for your help, Blastoise.  Very full and clear. Will be taking those steps later today. Been a very busy long weekend. Hope you have had a good one. 
Rob 

Jess_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Updated on 18/09/23 by Abby_OVO

Great to see our helpful community Pokemon, @Blastoise186 giving the goods in how to sign up to the Priority Services Register, @Robert Pope.

 

This free service is invaluable to making sure your supply is prioritised if there’s planned outages or power cuts. So it’s really important to sign up and notify us of any mains-dependent medical equipment.

 

At the moment the Priority Services Register doesn’t affect the plans and prices available to you and won’t cover the costs of energy used to power medical equipment. However there may be alternative financial support available to help cover this cost. The Warm Home Discount offers an annual winter payment to eligible households, read more about the upcoming changes to the scheme this winter here.

Powered by Re-knowable Energy!
R
Rank

Thank you for that cautionary note. As I understand it, there is NO provision within OVO for modification to plans and payment for powering medical equipment. That’s disappointing. I’ll follow through the alternative route you suggest. 

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

I’m afraid it’s kinda complicated. Someone seems to be telling tons of people that energy suppliers will reimburse them for the cost of the electricity used to power medical equipment, but I don’t know exactly who that is. Otherwise I’d be tempted to send them a friendly email to ask them for their sources and verification.

This is in fact, not the case. Not just with OVO, but multiple other suppliers too. I’ve got friends who help out on other forums and they’ve had the same question before as well, only to realise that the user was given bad advice “upstream” by whoever gave the original advice.

I’d recommend chasing up with your doctor about this, as they may know more.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
R
Rank

Thanks again. In this case the advice is coming from the technical support for the dialysis machine. I’ll follow up on the alternative route suggested and let you know how I get on… 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings