Skip to main content
Solved

THTC meter - Removal Request

Hi folks,

 

I am trying to have a redundant THTC meter removed from my house and OVO seem to be refusing to do this. Can anyone help explain what I should do? Some background info below:

 

We moved to a property in March last year in the west of Scotland. The property has two meters with a THTC setup running storage heaters. We are getting the storage heaters removed in February and an air source heat pump installed. 

 

Once this work has been carried out there will be nothing running from the RadioTelemeter (THTC) meter.

 

I have contacted OVO by phone yesterday to request that this meter be removed once it is no longer in use. The person I spoke with said that OVO would not do this because doing so would stop the other (ordinary) meter working. They weren’t able to explain why this would be the case. After some time on the phone I was told that if I emailed OVO with evidence that the THTC meter would not powering anything then they could arrange for it to be removed. This seemed like a positive outcome although it was not clear why we were initially told in the call that removal wasn’t possible.

 

I sent an email last night attaching the quotes from our electrician and heating engineer for removal of storage heaters and replacement with heat pump etc. I got a positive response this morning:

I am Stephen from account management at OVO energy after reading your email we can go ahead and do that for you but i am going to give you extra information so to proceed with this job there is a charge due to the nature of it I would like to clarify that your okay with that and if you are i can go ahead and get you a price and and book the job for you.

 

Again this seemed positive and I asked Stephen to go ahead and give us a cost. I then had response email from Nahim:

Apologies for the confusion form what Stephan said but as of right now, appointments for removing THTC meters aren't available. We appreciate you gave us confirmation the property's heating system is no longer dependant.

However we are working on a new meter type that'll basically replace the current two meters and you'll get one meter. The meter will reveal at Spring and you'll get an email when your free meter upgrade is ready

 

As far as I understand it the ‘new meter type’ mentioned has been in development for years and has been repeatedly delayed. I have little to no confidence that it will arrive in spring as promised above. It isn’t clear why we should be expected to wait for this.

 

Ontop of that our experience from speaking to neighbours and friends locally is that smart meters are useless in this (rural) area since they are not able to connect to a radio mast for communication. Any smart meters fitted simply operate as ‘dumb’ meters in this area.

 

Can anyone give us some hope that it is possible to get the redundant THTC meter removed as we have requested? Is there any technical reason why this wouldn’t be possible?

 

Failing that at least any good reason why we should have to wait for the new meter to be developed and rolled out? It seems in this instance that whilst waiting we’d have headaches if we wanted to switch supplier etc because we’d have a strange setup with a redundant meter and two MPAN numbers associated with the property. This could go on indefinitely since the new meters are not yet launched.

 

Below is a photograph of our current setup incase this is useful:

 

 

We’d really appreciate any help on this!

 

Thanks

 

 

 

148 replies

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Then perhaps you should try designing, implementing, deploying and managing infrastructure yourself perhaps? Because if you did - and I definitely do that for IT Infrastructure as part of my job - you’d understand this stuff isn’t a Dump N’ Go solution.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

I know from my own experience that they’ve been busy with this since before October 2022.


Hardly “Dump ‘N Go”, I’m sure you’ll agree.

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

If you need to see just how many people are pulling their hair out re. THTC/Smart Meters, try this for some light reading…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/819324289910472

You are not alone.
Far from it.

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Or no reading at all. I ain’t signing up to something that’ll let Mark Zuckerberg slurp my data just to read complaints about one specific meter type.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Hi Blastie!

Any update of the mother of all announcements? Expect not.

Curiously, I just came across this on another forum page from a year ago… from you!!!

1 year ago

Ok, I’m back. Sorry for the wait!

There is good news. I met up with one of OVO’s internal smart meter experts a few months ago and we had a long discussion about this topic. I just needed to check some public resources to see if anything new was out there in the internet.

OVO is developing a solution that’ll enable you to migrate a THTC setup to Smart Meters. That is something I can 100% confirm because I’ve seen the evidence of it myself. You’ll lose the complicated mess of wiring between several meters and go onto a single Smart Meter once the upgrade is done.

The only snag is that it’s not ready to deploy yet as things are still being worked out. But it is officially Coming Soon! Once you’ve been upgraded, you’ll be free to stick with SSE/OVO or move away if you wish, it’d be totally up to you. I wouldn’t recommend switching supplier at this time though, just to make the migration off of your current setup easier.

Once a solution is available, we’ll no doubt see something posted to the OVO Forum announcing it. Watch this space!

 

😂

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

I don’t see you offering a solution here. Perhaps rather than trying to fight me, you could come up with something a little more… Helpful… Perhaps?

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Sadly, I am not in a position to solve OVO’s issues for you.

Bradley_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 4

I appreciate this is a frustrating experience @monster9 and there is nothing more that we’d like to do, than to give an immediate, all queries answered, post up about this. 

 

However, we’ve been working closely with @Blastoise186 and our internal teams to get something put together as soon as possible. He is right when he says we’re very close in getting something uploaded soon, but we’re making sure all the I’s are dotted and t’s crossed. The last thing we want to do is upload something that’s wrong and that effectively worsens a customers experience. 

 

I’d just ask if we could refrain from being combative with our super users, who are doing nothing more than trying to help where they’re physically able to, this will make this process much easier and smoother for all involved. Please make sure you’re following the Forum House Rules.

 

As I say, I sympathise with you and understand you’re frustrated and want answers, as I imagine many users do too, but please understand we’re doing all we can to get something issued asap. 

 

If you have any questions or want to discuss any of this offline, please don’t hesitate to send me a private message. Always happy to chat and support where I can.

 

I'm not lazy, I'm just in energy saving mode!
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

 

Apologies for my earlier frustrations, but you must understand the enormous disappointment we THTC customers experience when we hear, for the umpteenth time, that it's "coming soon".

I first heard it 2 years ago, one of your volunteers stated it a year ago and again a few weeks ago.

Sadly, "Coming soon" carries no weight any more. I’m sure you understand why.

Only recently, when pressed, did a webchat agent tell me that "soon" was being targeted for "end of 2025".

Also, personally, I have been trying for 2 years to get any kind of meaningful response to having THTC removed in its entirety from my home. For the most part, I get the standard response that "the meter isn't ready yet" which demonstrates a total lack of OVO support staff to understand my request for THTC removal, not replacement. I have made formal complaint, which has gone unanswered for several months. Why?

And I'm not alone - the Facebook forum I referenced earlier is awash with people all telling similar stories of repeated frustration and disappointment.

Today, I tried once again check progress on my case, only to be referred to an OVO team I have already spoken to who couldn't help.

In the meantime, all us THTC customers are locked into tariffs we don't want and are paying over the odds for our electricity. We are unable to take advantage of offers in the marketplace, which could reduce our bills significantly. For some, these bills are crippling.

And no other provider will take us on.

And we're told it's "Jam tomorrow".

I will wait, of course. I have no other option.

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @monster9,

 

I’m really sorry, I understand how frustrating this must be for you.

 

The latest advice is very positive:

 

After a very successful pilot, from the 17th June 2024 we will begin writing to our Economy 10 RTS customers to invite them to call us to arrange for their meter exchange. 

 

We are continuing to work at pace to enable the same solution for the majority of our other RTS customers and our aim is to begin writing to these customers in Aug 2024. 

 

If you aren’t contacted in August please reach out to our forum team & we’ll ask about this internally for you. 

 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Update on my previous message…

Four months ago I made a complaint about my request to have THTC removed from my home.

I’ve received no reply, so chased yesterday. I finally got an email…

In it, the advisor stated, "in order to raise a complaint, we do require you to be on the phone so we can have the best understanding of the complaint."

She then added, "don't worry, everything I would have discussed on the phone, I have included in the email below!"

So, are you going to call me – or not? This is confusing.

In my complaint letter I clearly stated that I want to completely remove THTC, not replace the THTC meter with an equivalent THTC Smart meter, whenever it becomes available.

However, the advisor's response, sadly predictably, was, "we are looking to replace them in the future."

Aaargh!!!! Another example of OVO not bothering to read the message! How hard is this to understand?

She also mentioned in the email that OVO can put me on a single rate tariff (at the higher of the two THTC tariffs) "so you are not overcharged."

What does "so you are not overcharged" even relate to? This makes no sense to me.

So, OVO’s interim solution to a problem they fail to grasp is to charge me more for the same electricity? Why would I want that? How is it even relevant to the conversation?

I'd like to follow up with the advisor, but there's no reference number, no complaint reference, no case number provided.

There's no telephone number other than the standard Customer Care number.

There’s no email address other than the general hello@ovoenergy.com.

So, I'm right back to square one.

Has the complaint been raised and recorded? I have no idea. Is it now closed? Are you going to call me? Where do we stand with this?

I haven’t a clue.

This is the real-life experience of hundreds, if not thousands, of OVO customers.

It’s not good enough.

@Emmanuelle_OVO  You mentioned that If I’m not contacted in August, to reach out to the forum team & you’ll ask about this internally for me.

By now, you’ll clearly understand that I’m not looking to replace my THTC meter but to remove the THTC meter. So, as I am not dependant on the new THTC meters to resolve my problem there is no need to wait to see if I am contacted in August. This can all happen now.

Can you please reach out internally as you suggest, and get this expedited?

Many thanks.

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Howdy!

Sorry for the gate crash, but a new Forum Guide has just been released that may interest those who follow this thread. Please find it linked below.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them there.

Thank you!

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Shads_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 4

Hi @monster9,

 

I’m really sorry for the issues you’ve been experiencing, that’s definitely not the experience we want for our customers.

 

I’m going to have our Forum_Support team reach out to you so they can help you further with this.

 

Look out for a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Hi @Shads_OVO 

The link you posted ( https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview ) just gives me a “Page Not Found” error???

 

 

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

I can fix that! Try this one instead: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview which fixes a misplaced dot in the link.

Oh, and sorry if you’re getting tons of emails from the Forum at the moment. We’re doing some maintenance to update RTS threads - apologies if it gets noisy!

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Thanks @Blastoise186 that worked.

Update is “we'll be looking into this for you. I'll be back as soon as I have an update for you.”

 

Shads_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 4

Hi @monster9,

 

Hopefully the Forum_Support team will be able to help further with this. Please keep us updated.

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

An update on my situation…

I previously sought advice on this forum and elsewhere regarding my request to replace my THTC meter with a regular smart meter and get off the THTC tariff. I raised a case and also a formal complaint.

Last week, I was advised to "contact us to have the meters either removed or upgraded to smart anytime."

Fantastic news, right?

Except...

Today, I was contacted by an Advanced Complaints Advisor (or someone with a similar title) who informed me that I cannot have a smart meter. Apparently, there's an "infrastructure problem."

When asked for details, the advisor couldn't explain the specific issue, but the bottom line is I can't get a smart meter.

I suspect the problem is related to the RTS signal, or its replacement the “Smart Metering Wide Area Network”, which I’m guessing isn't available at my location.

This likely means any new smart meter wouldn’t be able to send readings to Ovo.

If that's the case, why can't I get a smart meter, go onto a single tariff, and manually submit readings?

If I understand correctly, if your home is outside the Smart Metering Wide Area Network, you're out of luck. No smart meter for you.

The advisor mentioned that the target for resolving this "infrastructure problem" is June 2025.

To tell the truth, I’ve had so many variations in the information I’m being supplied with I have no idea who or what to believe anymore.

In the meantime, I'm stuck with a tariff I don't want, paying significantly higher prices than I could get elsewhere in the market, and with no option to change suppliers because I have two meters.

BTW, the neighbour up the road has a smart meter. It works just fine.

Time to contact the Ombudsman?

A

Howdy!

Sorry for the gate crash, but a new Forum Guide has just been released that may interest those who follow this thread. Please find it linked below.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them there.

Thank you!

As a new user of the forum, can I suggest that this guide is made available to the customer support teams so they can give factual answers not the nonsense I was given today and in all my earlier phone calls. With this and reading the rest of this thread, I now have a better understanding of why it’s not easy to just whip out THTC and replace with a single smart meter so that I can switch supplier…

I would also suggest that the customer support draw attention to the forum?

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

Just spoke to someone in Squad70.

He tells me that right now (and for the foreseeable future) NO THTC meters are currently being replaced because of a technical issue that he could not describe to me.

He said 100,000 people either are (i.e. have a problem with their smart meter) or will be potentially affected (i.e. won’t get a smart meter).

So, now I’m unsure whether I can’t get a meter because I’m out of the Smart Metering Wide Area Network or because of this other, unspecified problem?

It’ll be fixed by June 2025.

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

I suspect the problem is related to the RTS signal, or its replacement the “Smart Metering Wide Area Network”, which I’m guessing isn't available at my location.

 

 

I thought I’d pointed this out to you earlier: there is no replacement for the RTS signal.  

The RTS service makes it possible for your electricity distributor (I’m guessing SSEN) to send signals to a dedicated meter to control the times when power is delivered to your heating circuits. 

Smart meters don’t incorporate this capability. They can manage timings by means of internal switches if appropriate, but there is no remote control over the timings like RTS does.. 

If your neighbour has a working smart meter, it may be possible for you to join the smart network via his connection. 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
M
Rank

Just spoke to someone in Squad70.

He tells me that right now (and for the foreseeable future) NO THTC meters are currently being replaced because of a technical issue that he could not describe to me.

He said 100,000 people either are (i.e. have a problem with their smart meter) or will be potentially affected (i.e. won’t get a smart meter).

So, now I’m unsure whether I can’t get a meter because I’m out of the Smart Metering Wide Area Network or because of this other, unspecified problem?

It’ll be fixed by June 2025.

As someone also on an RTS controlled THTC two meter set up, I’m starting to get worried that a working smart meter is actually going to be available before the RTS switch off.  😕

Shads_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 4

Hi @monster9,

 

I’m sorry to hear this. I’ll get our Forum_Support team to reach out again to look into this further for you.

 

Hi @Aberdeenshire_user,

 

I’m happy that the RTS guide has been useful to you. I completely understand your frustration here and I do agree. I will feed this back.

 

Hi @Mo59,

 

I’ll reach out to on our expert to see if there’s any further updates. The last update did say that we expected to begin writing to customers with RTS set ups in Aug 2024. I’ll be back once I get an answer for you. 

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

@Firedog My bad. Thanks for the poke.

I was wondering if you could answer this theoretical question…

IF a customer cannot receive the WAN signal by any means, I expect their meter will be set up with the appropriate tariff prior to installation in their home.
What would happen if that customer wanted to change their tariff some time after installation of the meter - one that would involve changes to the aforementioned internal switches?
I’m making a presumption here that the WAN signal is used to reprogram the meter? 

What would happen in that case?
 

M
Rank
Userlevel 3

“He [Squad70] tells me that right now (and for the foreseeable future) NO THTC meters are currently being replaced because of a technical issue that he could not describe to me.”

@Blastoise186 is this something you are able to confirm via your contacts?

I’m unsure whether I’m being given out-of-date or up-to-date info.

Many thanks in advance.

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings