High electricity usage - what could it be?

The tests on your meter should help. There are are few things you can check if you have an hour free. Switching off everything you can for a short while can check if the meter is ‘creeping’. Take a reading before and afterwards to see what it increments. Then if there’s a known load that you can switch in for a known time, checking before and afterwards again, that can check the increments are at the right level. 
If your meter readings agree with those used to bill, it looks like the power is being recorded/used somehow. Switching things off can help to show if there’s a faulty appliance or circuit but that takes longer to check. 
 

Also half way down this page https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/why-am-i-paying-more-than-i-expected-for-my-energy

Thanks for the replies, I contacted them by chat some hours ago and am awaiting an email with some guide for checks.. I was curious what others may think on here, unfortunately the meter is awkward to get at and we have no in home display so I’ll hang on for there email for now because this will be a pain to check.. 
If it email doesn’t arrive by Monday I’ll attempt to speak to a human.  

Ok, understand. The billing is directly from the meter readings so that’s why it’s important to check when you can. As you’ve already said that the meter reading does currently agree it suggests either a fault on your electrics or meter. Let us know how you get on. 

After taking electricity readings manually for the last two days, followed by a Smart reading being submitted that overwrote mine, it’s apparent that what is displayed is 500 greater than what the Smart reader submits. Rang Ovo and 45 days of waiting now for investigations. 

Hi All,

I have been with Ovo for years, during that time I have always been in credit.

With the cost of living crisis, of course energy costs have soared, but something outrageous is happening with my bill.

After being constantly harassed about installing a smart meter, I eventually did this a couple of years ago. But around half a year ago, the electricity meter broke, and Ovo took >40 days to request an engineer call-out...and that call-out never happened.

Fast forward, my estimated bill for January is £2200 for electricity alone, and now I  apparently need to increase my monthly payment from £250 to £750. This is absurd. There is no way that my 3 bed terrace house with two occupants is using restaurant levels of energy.

When I tried to submit a manual reading over the phone, the system would not accept the number, further validating the issue with the meter. 

Has anybody else experienced issues like this?

OVO’s Support Team can override the system for this. You’ll need to talk to them directly though. 0330 303 5063 or Chat via https://help.ovoenergy.com .

I’ve had a similar issue. My meter stopped sending reading and started sending “estimated readings” my usage apparantly went from £250 for December (Gas/Elec) to £2200 for electricity alone and now I owe £5000 to heat my 3 bedroom mid-terrace house. They offered after a 40 day wait to send out an engineer, but nobody came out. 

Thanks for your reply. It was a customer service agent who couldn’t enter the readings into the system.

I have to wait for the engineer and pray that they realise I haven’t increased my energy consumption by 10x than the past three years. 

Hi @Ter it sounds like your meter is not sending readings. What happens then is that your usage is estimated (not by the meter). 
You should be able to request a delay to any dd increase while the meter is sorted but once they get the proper readings onto the system it should sort itself out. 

Yep I agree.

@Ter what’s showing up in the ‘My plan’ section of your online account for the ‘Future Annual Consumption’ figure: https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

With a bit more info we may be able to offer some advice. Please bear in mind that we can’t access your account so the Support team are best placed to offer account specific help.