I've got no power supply, national grid confirm it's not a power cut and nothing odd on fuse box - How can I get help from OVO on the weekend?

We’ve been without power for 24 hours now. It’s only our house that’s affected, and nothing has tripped on the fuse board. 
We had a new ‘smart meter’ fitted on 28th. The Ovo engineers told us that it wasn’t working properly, and promised to come back and fix it - but haven’t. This is the second outage since then. 
I spent all day yesterday either in a queue for the online emergency helpline, or holding on the telephone hotline, (nearly three hours), without getting through to anyone that could actually help. 

It’s driving us nuts. Son unable to do online homework yesterday, food in fridge and freezer will probably need chucking, not to mention the cold. 
This is immensely frustrating. I think we’re going to have to contact Ofgen because this is totally unacceptable. 
 

Hey @Jim Dutton 

Sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having.

Have you contacted the Support Team this morning like Jeffus has recommended? If the meter is the issue, they’ll be able to get someone out to get that fixed. 

Yes, and two engineers have just arrived, and are replacing the meter. Fingers crossed it works. We’ve been without power for 28 hours so far. Will have to throw out the contents of our fridge and freezer. 

Might be worth checking https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/food-safety-during-power-outage#:~:text=A%20full%20freezer%20will%20hold,food%20to%20determine%20its%20safety.

Just to add: most household contents insurance policies cover freezer contents damaged as a result of a power cut.  

I can vouch for that as well. The terms of my home insurance also cover loss of freezer food - there’s a limit to the value but it’s enough for 99% of cases.

I would suggest you consider carefully as to whether to make such a claim however - you would potentially lose your No Claims Discount which may end up costing you more than what you lost in the freezer.

Hi @u09lec 

Sorry to hear that, I am just a customer like you.

Your tenants should be able to request an emergency meter replacement if the electrician has checked.

It is meant to be replaced within 3 to 4 hours

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/emergency-with-your-meter

If they refuse ask them to raise a complaint when speaking to them, but it really should not be necessary as that will slow things down.

There is more on the complaint process here.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

You could also contact your electricity DNO to check if there are any issues in your area or if they want to investigate the supply to the building or the main cut out fuse located near the meter.

https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator

It would help if you post how you get on as the ovo moderators will be around again in the morning and they may have some additional advice.

I assume you are sure there is credit on the meter.

Could you post a photo of the meter on the forum?

Did the electrician think it was a meter issue specifically?

Do you know if it is a smart or traditional pre payment meter?

Fingers crossed you make progress.

That kind of behaviour sounds like the meter might be in a Load Limiting mode where the customer is only allowed to use so much power at once and/or per day. It’s not used much in the UK, but it does get used and is not the result of a faulty meter if it’s intentionally enabled by the supplier.

Load Limiting is only ever used as one of the more extreme last-resort debt management options. No-one ever uses it just because someone is say, one month behind but working with the supplier on a solution.

Your tenant should try reducing how much stuff they have on for a few hours to let the “credits” build back up - this may help both resolve the issue and prove/disprove my theory.

When enabled, should the power load be too high and all the Load Limiting credits get used up, the meter WILL disconnect you for about 15 seconds and you need to use that time to shut down all unimportant stuff. It’ll reconnect afterwards and remain on provided you remain within the limits - it’s usually enough to run a few lights and basic appliances.

The meter grants credits every few milliseconds and checks the balance of them roughly once every 15 seconds - reacting appropriately based on that check.

These Credits will build up if you’re below the limit and deplete if you’re above it.

You may be able to ask to have these limits removed if they’re currently enabled.

I switched to OVO from another supplier and since yesterday I don’t have power supply. Agents was not at all helpful, kept transferring to different departments. An emergency engineer visit was booked for yesterday and they didn’t show up. Now after contacting customer support since morning today managed to get another emergency appointment booked and I am hopeless with any engineer visiting the property. I’m afraid I have to just live like this until the engineer chose to visit. 

Engineer visited just now, I hope the issue is sorted as I have power supply now.