How can I download Smart Meter Data from OVO?

Morning ​@HexhamUser, I hope you’re well.

We’ve heard nothing internally on this one, but I will ask the question to our Product team. I’ll reach out if I get an answer.

Cheers!

Ben could have given the short answer: No!

Here’s a longer one for anyone else who may be interested: there are at least three simple methods, as there have been since this was last up for discussion.

• OVO’s SmartPAYMAPI, which requires you to know the appropriate URLs to get the data you need. Half-hourly usage data are so far as I’m aware only available for one day at a time, which is tedious to start with but not a problem for regular (e.g. daily) retrievals to keep a database updated. 
  These data are only available after OVO has collected them from your meter via their data collector and DCC; this used to happen in the early hours, but in recent months it’s getting later and later, up to 24 hours after the event.
  Hh data -  substitute your OVO account no. for nnnnnnn:
  smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/usage/api/half-hourly/nnnnnnn?date=2025-08-27
    
• Mike Williams’ handy utility.  This automates collection via the API, so subject to the same delays. It can retrieve many days’ data at a time, though (I recently checked that it could get all my Hh data since March 2017, when my first smart meter was installed).
    
• Third party utilities like Loop, Bright and n3rgy. The first two now use their own DCC adapters; Bright is still free, but Loop isn’t. n3rgy require authentication via one of their business partners; one of these is Equiwatt both free and effective, giving access to CSV data downloads from n3rgy’s consumer portal. Equiwatt users are required to play in their sandpit occasionally, though. n3rgy seem unable to retrieve my data until after 10:30 each morning, and short of opting for a direct MQTT connection, that’s what I have to put up with.

Thanks ​@Firedog,

If you had any feedback as to how you’d like to see the downloadable usage be improved on the app please let me know, and I can pass the feedback onto the Product team.

Thanks ​@Ben_OVO, a comprehensive answer for the app!

I mainly use a PC for analysing data, and of course there isn’t a Windows version of the app. So, using the app on my iPhone is a bit less convenient. If the team were looking for areas for improvement, I’d really like to download half-hour data for multiple days (e.g. specifying a start day and an end day). Doing a day at a time is a bit of a pain. And a version that worked in the browser would of course be desirable! But I’m not holding my breath!

Thanks also ​@Firedog. I’d also been through all of those earlier methods. As far as I could see, the SmartPAYMAPI just gets you JSON data, which can be converted to Excel but you have to use Microsoft’s Power Query editor to deal with the nested JSON data. 

I need to go back and retry Mike WIlliam’s app. The last time I tried was at the start of the new year and something didn’t work. Probably my fault!

I used to use n3rgy but that stopped when the free Hugo app disappeared. I don’t want to have to pay for an app that I’ll never use (or one that requires me to use it). There just seems something wrong in having to pay for something to be able to freely get at what is my DCC data! I’ll have to look at Bright again. Thanks.

To be really useful, the download function should:

1. Not round the underlying data. Meters will in many cases record and share usage data with three places of decimals, i.e. to the nearest Wh. It’s often important, especially when troubleshooting, to have the maximum available precision.
2. If costs are included (why?), at least indicate whether standing charges and VAT are included or not. 
3. Allow for customization of the dataset, e.g. specify the period (not just what happens to be being displayed), the date format, the time zone, the file name …
4. Allow the user to specify the location of the downloaded file (it may be just me, but I still haven’t found out what happens after clicking on Download data on my Samsung Galaxy A15 with Android 15). 

It takes me just a moment to retrieve the JSON file with a day’s precise usage data using the API on my laptop. The app function by contrast is fiddly and frustrating for fumblefingers here, to achieve a less satisfactory result. 

Thanks for this ​@HexhamUser, this is really useful feedback.

There is an option to share the data by email - I’m wondering whether you could email it to yourself and then open it in sheets on the PC?

​@Firedog thanks as well for your great feedback here. I was speaking to the team earlier so I’ll make sure this is all passed on.

Thanks, yes that is what I did. Even better if I could do multiple days at once 😀

I just use standard worksheet functions (find & replace, text to columns, sort and filter) to pick out the bits I need from the JSON data. It helps to have them pretty-printed first, but my browser (Edge) does that for me. 

I have my phone linked to share files over wifi to/from my laptop using CX File Explorer on the phone.

So I gave it a go.

I clicked the Download button in the OVO app, that opened a download window in which CX was one of the options.

I selected CX, Network, my laptop name, username, Desktop, Save.

About 2 seconds overall and the usage data csv was on my laptops desktop. Probably faster if I do it again.

Opened it directly into my spreadsheet app on the laptop and copied/pasted the kWh data into my Power Move spreadsheet.

One thing that I did find after checking that the figures were slightly different in the app than in the online account, presumably due to rounding differences in each. Only 0.04 kWh over 24 hours so not really significant as 2-DP figures.