I’m new to OVO and recently moved into a small apartment with a smart meter about 6 weeks ago. This smart meter currently isn’t sending any readings to OVO and I have an engineer's visit scheduled to try and fix this. In the meantime I am submitting manual readings once or twice a month to keep my account updated and billing accurate. My direct debit was initially set a £92 a month which seems extremely high, however every time I enter a manual reading the future annual consumption seems to increase exponentially. It was initially 2700 kwh and now is at 4970kwh. I also notice on the usage graph it is estimating days after my reading to be laughably high. These then come down after I submit another manual reading.
Is there anything I can do to rectify this? I really don’t want my direct debit to be increased based on these dodgy figures?
Thanks!
Best answer by Nukecad
Updated on the 01/09/25 by Emmanuelle_OVO:
Hi @cjxmc
I had a similar situation of non-sending meters, and a skyrocketing FAC for my gas, when I first moved in here.
Another PZH also had FAC problems with his electricity, and like myself did a lot of digging into FACs and how they (don’t always) work. @Firedog may also have some advice for you.
I'm sorry to say that mine took a while to sort out, mainly because in my case there was more than one thing in play. It did get better, but is not quite fully there yet.
What is probably happening here: Being a new customer OVO don't have 12 months readings from you and so to calculate your FAC they use figures provided by the Central Data Service Providers - Elexon for electricity and Xoserve for gas. Those figures will be either previous use figures for the property, (use by the last tenant or owner), or more likely 'Industry Standard' figures.
The figures used may well be higher than your actual use, which distorts the calculated DD required. The estimates based on those figure are also used on the usage charts if no smart reading or customer reading is availabe for the day(s) in question, as you show an estimated bar will be higher than an actual use bar simply because it is a too high estimate. Look at it again after you send another reading and it will be adjusted down to 'actual' use, all the figures/bars from the last reading until you give another will be estimates. You say that you have already noticed that happening so it is working as it should do.
Be reassured that you are only being charged for what you actually use. The excess that you are paying by DD builds up as a credit balance on your account. And yes it can be annoying having to pay more DD than needed.
… the future annual consumption seems to increase exponentially. It was initially 2700 kwh and now is at 4970kwh.
I’m not sure if what you see there is the same thing, but for some reason the figures provided can suddenly spike-up like that. I had that happen multiple times and had OVOs advanced complaints team looking into it, complicated because 3-companies are involved (OVO, Kaluza, and Xoserve), after about a month of digging they identified that it was the figures being provided from Xoserve to Kaluza that spiked, the error was at Xoserve so there was not a lot OVO could do, except note it and lower my DD again if/when it happened and I shouted. Thankfully It hasn’t happened again since I got fully communicating Smart Meters.
Practical measures that you can take: You may be able to reduce your DD by 10% yourself on your online account. I'm not sure if you will be shown that option being a new customer. (Although I note you are on a Fixed Loyalty tariff, so presumably you were an OVO customer before the move). Go to the Direct Debits section and go through the pages until you get to ‘Change my DD amount’ https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/direct-debit/change-ddamount Scroll down and see if this is available to you:
If you don't see that option, or if you want more of a reduction then contact OVO support and ask for your DD's to be reduced because the FACs are too high. They should be able to offer a 15% reduction.
Send in more frequent meter readings, at least weekly. The more that you send the more you are copying what a smart meter does. (At times I was sending in a new reading each day, that’s what a smart meter does). Be sure to send a reading on the first day of your billing period, doing that avoids having any estimated on your bills.
On that point, have you checked that your meter is set to send daily readings? When I had a new gas meter fitted last year it had somehow been set to only send monthly and I didn’t notice until I checked after 6 weeks why it wasn’t sending. If it is set to send weekly or monthly then the daily figures shown on the usage graph will be estimates between actual readings. Although I suppose you have already checked that if an engineer visit has been booked.
I have to be honest though, it may well take a full year of Smart Readings before you FAC settles down to where it should be. I'm afraid that it's probably going to be a case of using the DD reductions that you can until then.
I had a similar situation of non-sending meters, and a skyrocketing FAC for my gas, when I first moved in here.
Another PZH also had FAC problems with his electricity, and like myself did a lot of digging into FACs and how they (don’t always) work. @Firedog may also have some advice for you.
I'm sorry to say that mine took a while to sort out, mainly because in my case there was more than one thing in play. It did get better, but is not quite fully there yet.
What is probably happening here: Being a new customer OVO don't have 12 months readings from you and so to calculate your FAC they use figures provided by the Central Data Service Providers - Elexon for electricity and Xoserve for gas. Those figures will be either previous use figures for the property, (use by the last tenant or owner), or more likely 'Industry Standard' figures.
The figures used may well be higher than your actual use, which distorts the calculated DD required. The estimates based on those figure are also used on the usage charts if no smart reading or customer reading is availabe for the day(s) in question, as you show an estimated bar will be higher than an actual use bar simply because it is a too high estimate. Look at it again after you send another reading and it will be adjusted down to 'actual' use, all the figures/bars from the last reading until you give another will be estimates. You say that you have already noticed that happening so it is working as it should do.
Be reassured that you are only being charged for what you actually use. The excess that you are paying by DD builds up as a credit balance on your account. And yes it can be annoying having to pay more DD than needed.
… the future annual consumption seems to increase exponentially. It was initially 2700 kwh and now is at 4970kwh.
I’m not sure if what you see there is the same thing, but for some reason the figures provided can suddenly spike-up like that. I had that happen multiple times and had OVOs advanced complaints team looking into it, complicated because 3-companies are involved (OVO, Kaluza, and Xoserve), after about a month of digging they identified that it was the figures being provided from Xoserve to Kaluza that spiked, the error was at Xoserve so there was not a lot OVO could do, except note it and lower my DD again if/when it happened and I shouted. Thankfully It hasn’t happened again since I got fully communicating Smart Meters.
Practical measures that you can take: You may be able to reduce your DD by 10% yourself on your online account. I'm not sure if you will be shown that option being a new customer. (Although I note you are on a Fixed Loyalty tariff, so presumably you were an OVO customer before the move). Go to the Direct Debits section and go through the pages until you get to ‘Change my DD amount’ https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/direct-debit/change-ddamount Scroll down and see if this is available to you:
If you don't see that option, or if you want more of a reduction then contact OVO support and ask for your DD's to be reduced because the FACs are too high. They should be able to offer a 15% reduction.
Send in more frequent meter readings, at least weekly. The more that you send the more you are copying what a smart meter does. (At times I was sending in a new reading each day, that’s what a smart meter does). Be sure to send a reading on the first day of your billing period, doing that avoids having any estimated on your bills.
On that point, have you checked that your meter is set to send daily readings? When I had a new gas meter fitted last year it had somehow been set to only send monthly and I didn’t notice until I checked after 6 weeks why it wasn’t sending. If it is set to send weekly or monthly then the daily figures shown on the usage graph will be estimates between actual readings. Although I suppose you have already checked that if an engineer visit has been booked.
I have to be honest though, it may well take a full year of Smart Readings before you FAC settles down to where it should be. I'm afraid that it's probably going to be a case of using the DD reductions that you can until then.
Thanks for the reply! I’ll start doing daily readings I think and hope it eventually sorts itself out once the smart meter starts sending data! It’s especially annoying as I was quoted £52 a month estimated when initially setting the account up and this then changed to £92 when speaking to them over the phone. I’m sure it’ll get sorted eventually!
Thanks for your fantastic reply here @Nukecad - couldn’t have put it better myself.
@cjxmc this will all settle down eventually, especially when we get the smart meter working properly. At the moment we won’t have much usage data from you to base the estimates on, so I’d take it all with a pinch of salt for now. Once we’ve had you on supply for a few more months then things will start to tighten up a bit and the data will be a lot more accurate, especially when we have some winter usage as well to help average things out.
It’s a pain when you get quoted one price and then it gets increased, but it’s difficult for us to give an exact quote unless you know exactly how much you’re going to use, especially when it’s a new property. Let us know how you get on with the engineer’s visit, and please do feel free to ask any further questions in the Forum. We’ve got a really helpful community here as you can see from @Nukecad’s reply. I’ve listed below some other Forum articles which should be of help to you as a new customer:
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