It’s not always that simple I’m afraid.

If you’re in a Load Managed Area, you cannot come off of THTC unless you’re willing to get rid of ALL Storage Heaters and Immersion Heaters and migrate to some other heating/hot water setup.

Your DNO should be able to tell you if you are in one or not.

Hi @Grapallie11,

I’m really sorry to hear this. It seems Blastoise186 has already made some good points here. Unfortunately, we’re currently limited in how we can help with this here.

It might be worth contacting our specially trained team who deal with these THTC set ups, as they may be able to give some more advice. You’d be able to contact them by calling our Support team from the contact number listed on your account. They’d be able to transfer you through.

This thread may also be useful:

We are not in a load managed area and still cannot get rid of the THTC meters....or so we have been told for the last 3 years.  I look at Octopus agile prices and wish we could move.   I completely agree with the comments regarding being stuck with an expensive tariff with NO possibility of moving supplier. 

Good for you Cassie11 for your comments. I don't want to be stuck with this tariff for any longer than necessary. I have spoken with numerous advisors at OVO and, whilst I'm sure that they are being as helpful as they can, they're limited in what they can say. A common phrase being used often is 'It's because of infrastructure issues'. OK then OVO, please inform customers exactly what these issues are; you must know. I will have another go at the Support Team and see where that takes us but I'm not holding any breath. 

If you’re talking about THTC, the raw truth is that the industry doesn’t yet have a Smart Meter ready that’s THTC enabled. OVO is making progress on it though - but word on the street is that everyone else is fighting over how it should be done.

Out of all the solutions I know of, the one OVO is developing seems to make the most sense. Either way, you’ll need one before you can even think about coming off of THTC. It’s either that, or you re-wire your entire house at great expense to yourself - and OVO cannot reimburse you for that.

Sorry, meant to type Cassie511.

Not quite correct about Rewiring house. 15 minutes reconfiguring meter tails will do it. I do not want a THTC smart meter, just a SMET2 meter which are now very available. I had a meter appointment booked with OVO recently to do exactly that, plus my Sparks standing by to sort the meter tails when THTC meters were removed and E7 smart meter installed. All was going to take about an hour after which I would be off THTC and onto E7.  Running up to my appointment time I received numerous text messages from OVO saying what a good boy I was for going 'Smart', plus a post card and a letter. Then an email saying 'sorry we've had to cancel your appointment to change your meter' - no explanation given; I had to phone to find out why, only to be informed that the appointment should not have been made in the first place as it can't be done at present because of 'infrastructure issues'. And so it goes on. 

I stand by my word.

And besides, if it’s infrastructure related issues, the DNO is probably blocking it - which is beyond OVO’s control.

I know you're trying to be helpful but please do not set hares running about rewiring. Not the DNO blocking it either.

Could it be that the £200M ÷ pa revenue from THTC tariff is a factor!!!

Revenue != Profit

Also, it's + not ÷ by the way. 

In that case, your best bet IS to wait for the right meter type to be available.

Exactly our experience.....we just want a straightforward SMET2 meter. We don't want a THTC replacement. We want nothing to do with the THTC set up and timings. They didn't cancel our appointments though.  We actually had 2 visits from guys to change meters over the last 2 years but when they see our meter set up there's a sharp intake of breath and they run away. 

I'm grateful for the help you gave me recently which allowed me, eventually, to find out we are NOT in a load managed area. So that's not the problem.

All we are asking for is for OVO to be communicating with us.....not having to use this forum to get second hand information, which I am grateful for, by the way.

1 We need a clear explanation, from OVO, of the difficulty in dealing with these meters.

2 We need ways in which we can make the changes if we want to get rid of THTC completely. Some people have been able to.....

3 We should be regularly updated, by OVO, regarding timelines. 

4 At the very least OVO should be dramatically reducing the THTC tariff to compensate us for, what is looking like, yet another hugely expensive winter.

There is no information from OVO at all.  I would  be really grateful if you could feed this back to your contacts in OVO.

You need to be aware that by posting on the Forum - which is Volunteer and Community led - that 99.999999999999999% of responses will come from either a Forum Volunteer such as myself, or another community member rather than from OVO Staff.

As Forum Volunteers, we aim to sync our advice with the official word from OVO whenever possible, as well as keep our advice in sync with the latest happenings across the industry. When something happens, we’re usually some of the first to know.

As previously mentioned, if you get rid of ALL Storage Heaters and Immersion Heaters, you can become eligible for getting rid of THTC immediately, subject to DNO approval.

As for the tariff? It’s expensive for OVO to operate too - and the prices for it RARELY change in either direction.

So this forum is full of questions and debate about legacy THTC systems and the challenge of migrating to a smart meter set up. I have read several comments about how complicated it's going to be and recommending those with THTC wait for the official solution. I’m not an electrician (so maybe I’m missing something) but I am a chartered engineer (so hopefully not a complete numpty) and I find the idea that this is a complicated challenge somewhat bemusing. The THTC system I am familiar with has a single supply to the house that splits and goes to 2 separate meters. From the first it goes to a consumer unit and off the lights, plug sockets etc. From the second it goes to a separate consumer unit and off to space heaters and an immersion heater for hot water. Some of these go via a RTS and some don’t. So all you have to do is remove both meters and the RTS. Insert a smart meter and send the output from it to the two consumer units and its job done.

Please tell me why this is wrong. 

As mentioned many, many times… It’s not that simple.

Backend systems must be updated to support this stuff, OVO’s billing platform needs to be taught how to do Smart THTC, tons of new code written, new meters designed, new meters certified, new systems tested, DCC upgraded, all the intermediary systems upgraded and tested… The list goes on. And that’s before you get to regulatory approval… OVO has been working on this stuff for years - I’ve seen the progress with my own eyes.

Oh, and then you need specially trained engineers - so you have to upskill existing engineers to do these jobs, or add it to the training courses of new engineers. For pretty complicated reasons - not just legal reasons - you can’t just get any old sparky to do this stuff.

It IS NOT just a simple “Lift N Shift” solution.

Hi

Seems like I’ve touched a nerve here! Don’t mean to cause offence, but you’ve just described the challenge of creating a smart version of the THTC system. We don’t want that! We want rid of it and  to replace it with a simple single meter solution as already working in millions of homes across the UK. The only legacy of the THTC will be two consumer units where normally there would only be one. 

That’s because Smart THTC seems to be the direction that’s being taken at this time, rather than completely nuking THTC altogether. The one upside is that it would become a single meter, rather than two meters.

Unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil and there’s no easy fix without upgrading the distribution infrastructure.

Hi

Yes, I get that a decision has been made to go for smart THTC. It's just that I think it's the wrong decision. You can achieve time of use metering in a host of different ways now on a device by device basis - our new storage heaters can do it! I think OVO are making work for themselves unnecessarily. 

And I agree with that capability being a thing.

Unfortunately, 99% of this stuff is beyond OVO’s control. OVO just has to go with whatever the industry - and Ofgem - desires. OVO never created THTC as it was the brainchild of some engineers over 30 years ago and the industry is basically stuck with it.

The whole reason it exists was to defer having to do massively expensive infrastructure upgrades - even to this day National Grid and the DNOs really don’t wanna do them, but they’ll have to eventually. Only then can THTC finally be extinguished.

EXACTLY our problem!! There must be thousands of us in the same position.  

IIRC there were still something like 200,000 RTS Meters in operation last time I checked the stats but it has probably changed since then.

However, not all of them are THTC given the wide range of RTS Meters and exotic setups out there.

OK, let's accept OVO is not to blame (and I do actually) who do I pester? Ofgem? National Grid? My MP? I’m retired so making a nuisance of myself will be a good use of my time!

To be honest… The true answer to that question is a minefield and an absolute spider web. You’ll rapidly get bogged down in red tape.

As far as I’m aware, there is no single party you can contact about this per se. It’s an industrywide thing and it’s taken me over four years of research just to gather together what I know. Alas, some of my sources have since… Ceased to exist…

Even I’m struggling to know who to turn to - and I specialise in research!

I feel your pain. 

Hi, Not everyone with THTC wants to move to a single meter set up. We are currently with Octopus and pay 13.3p/kwh for all heating and hot water via the the THTC meter and 24.5p/kwh for all other electricity from the standard meter. Moving to one meter would presumably mean paying 24.5p/kwh for everything. Hence our heating costs would nearly double. The problem here is not THTC itself but the reliance on the RTS.