We had a powecut on sunday and my screen is blank, the green background light is there but with no numbers telling me how much I've left. Once the credit has gone will it cut my supply off? Ive got a meter being installed on the 2 January. Im on prepayment for electric and gas and its the electric thats gone. Very worried about this
Solved
Meter screen blank after powercut
Best answer by Bendog
Updated on 18/12/25 by Ben_OVO
On other energy forum pages on Facebook, I have lost count of the number of old style prepayment meters whose display stops working in the event of a power cut. Fortunately, in this situation, the, usual, default setting on these meters when this happens is to go into “free vend”. This means that you will not lose supply as you would, ordinarily, if you ran out of credit. Many people with prepayment meters are already pretty savvy about knowing how much their energy costs and how often and by how much they need to top up their meters. The best advice is to put aside the sum(s) you would normally spend on topping up your meter. While in “free vend” the meter will still be logging your usage and daily standing charges and this will mean that your new meter will start with a debit balance. At this point, the money you put aside will, hopefully, be enough to clear that debit. If it isn’t, it is likely that you will be able to negotiate a payment plan that will allow any remaining debit balance to be reduced at an agreed rate per future top-up if that would be helpful. When looking at the roll-out of smart meters, in my opinion, old style key/card prepayment meters should have been a priority.
If your meter is off supply following a powercut, and you can’t top up, please contact us to book a same-day emergency meter exchange:
It would be wise to contact customer services to let them know of the error reading on your meter. It may be something that they can reset or it will reset once you do the next top-up of your supply.
I note you are due to have a new meter installed and guess this may be due to a problem with the existing meter. Hopefully customer services and the supply and fitting of a new meter will resolved your problem.
+1- Plan Zero Hero
Hi
Your meter is in Free Vend Mode - you have unlimited credit for now but please contact OVO immediately to resolve this.
You’ll need to repay what you use in the meantime - so please don’t go crazy with the zappy juice!
Hey
Welcome to the community,
You’ve gotten some fantastic advice from our community already! If you're having trouble reading the display, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support Team using the link above. They’re really helpful and can walk you through troubleshooting the issue. If needed, they’ll even arrange for an engineer to come by and swap the meter for you.
No need to worry too much—you’re definitely not alone in this! It’s actually pretty common to have these issues after a power cut. I’ve also included a link below to a member who faced a similar situation. Their heating setup might be a bit different from yours, but it might still be helpful:
Please keep us updated on what was needed to resolve things for you as it can be helpful to others in a similar position 🙂
Thank you so much ove been going crazy with worry, ovo have confirmed although I've a old style prepayment meter to carry on using my card and it should keep my electricity on. Ive hot fingers and toes crossed x
Hi
Your meter is in Free Vend Mode - you have unlimited credit for now but please contact OVO immediately to resolve this.
You’ll need to repay what you use in the meantime - so please don’t go crazy with the zappy juice!
Do i need to add money on to my key in the meantime until the engineer comes out? Thank you for helping
Hey
When you spoke with them, did they mention anything about arranging to get the meter replaced?
You shouldn't have to worry about adding extra money! I suggest setting aside the usual amount you top up, though. That way, once the meter gets replaced, you can easily add that as credit. Just a heads-up: while it's in “Free vend” mode, it will build up a debt balance, but don’t worry—it'll all balance out the next time you top up!
Hey
When you spoke with them, did they mention anything about arranging to get the meter replaced?
You shouldn't have to worry about adding extra money! I suggest setting aside the usual amount you top up, though. That way, once the meter gets replaced, you can easily add that as credit. Just a heads-up: while it's in “Free vend” mode, it will build up a debt balance, but don’t worry—it'll all balance out the next time you top up!
Yes they are coming out to replace it on the 2 jan 2026 that's the earliest appointment they had got. I was and am really worried after the credit I put in on Thursday last week then the power cut on Sunday ill have no electricity, 2 children ( 16 and 12) and I've got to be at work for 530am on my shift. Thank you for responding
Hey
When you spoke with them, did they mention anything about arranging to get the meter replaced?
You shouldn't have to worry about adding extra money! I suggest setting aside the usual amount you top up, though. That way, once the meter gets replaced, you can easily add that as credit. Just a heads-up: while it's in “Free vend” mode, it will build up a debt balance, but don’t worry—it'll all balance out the next time you top up!
Yes they are coming out to replace it on the 2 jan 2026 that's the earliest appointment they had got. I was and am really worried after the credit I put in on Thursday last week then the power cut on Sunday ill have no electricity, 2 children ( 16 and 12) and I've got to be at work for 530am on my shift. Thank you for responding
Hey
When you spoke with them, did they mention anything about arranging to get the meter replaced?
You shouldn't have to worry about adding extra money! I suggest setting aside the usual amount you top up, though. That way, once the meter gets replaced, you can easily add that as credit. Just a heads-up: while it's in “Free vend” mode, it will build up a debt balance, but don’t worry—it'll all balance out the next time you top up!
Yes they are coming out to replace it on the 2 jan 2026 that's the earliest appointment they had got. I was and am really worried after the credit I put in on Thursday last week then the power cut on Sunday ill have no electricity, 2 children ( 16 and 12) and I've got to be at work for 530am on my shift. Thank you for responding
Mine is the same as this one
Updated on 18/12/25 by Ben_OVO
On other energy forum pages on Facebook, I have lost count of the number of old style prepayment meters whose display stops working in the event of a power cut. Fortunately, in this situation, the, usual, default setting on these meters when this happens is to go into “free vend”. This means that you will not lose supply as you would, ordinarily, if you ran out of credit. Many people with prepayment meters are already pretty savvy about knowing how much their energy costs and how often and by how much they need to top up their meters. The best advice is to put aside the sum(s) you would normally spend on topping up your meter. While in “free vend” the meter will still be logging your usage and daily standing charges and this will mean that your new meter will start with a debit balance. At this point, the money you put aside will, hopefully, be enough to clear that debit. If it isn’t, it is likely that you will be able to negotiate a payment plan that will allow any remaining debit balance to be reduced at an agreed rate per future top-up if that would be helpful. When looking at the roll-out of smart meters, in my opinion, old style key/card prepayment meters should have been a priority.
If your meter is off supply following a powercut, and you can’t top up, please contact us to book a same-day emergency meter exchange:
On other energy forum pages on Facebook, I have lost count of the number of old style prepayment meters whose display stops working in the event of a power cut. Fortunately, in this situation, the, usual, default setting on these meters when this happens is to go into “free vend”. This means that you will not lose supply as you would, ordinarily, if you ran out of credit. Many people with prepayment meters are already pretty savvy about knowing how much their energy costs and how often and by how much they need to top up their meters. The best advice is to put aside the sum(s) you would normally spend on topping up your meter. While in “free vend” the meter will still be logging your usage and daily standing charges and this will mean that your new meter will start with a debit balance. At this point, the money you put aside will, hopefully, be enough to clear that debit. If it isn’t, it is likely that you will be able to negotiate a payment plan that will allow any remaining debit balance to be reduced at an agreed rate per future top-up if that would be helpful. When looking at the roll-out of smart meters, in my opinion, old style key/card prepayment meters should have been a priority.
Thank you so much, I appreciate your message
We had a short power cut on Tuesday. The display screen on the electric meter is now blank ( only noticed this morning). Phoned OVO to report after trying to press blue button/hold blue button and putting the key in to make it work. OVO are coming out to install a smart meter 22nd December 2025.
My question is what happens to the credit I had built up on the meter around £80.00 before the power cut happened ? Can the engineer transfer it over? or will I have to wait for it to be added at a later date? or will I loose the credit on the meter?
Your meter is now operating in “free vend” mode so you will not be cut off if you run out of credit, but will still be logging your usage and your daily standing charges. I don’t know how much of your £80 credit you would have been likely to use between the Tuesday “failure” and the 22nd of this month or if you would have been intending to top up before the 22nd. Just put any money aside that you may have been going to add to your meter and do this as soon as the new meter is installed.
I won't use all the £80 before the engineer comes. So how am I going to get the money that's left on the meter back or put on to the new meter if he can't see the amount in the existing meter due to the display seen not working/ showing anything?
I hope this helps.
I hope this helps.
I don’t have any of my receipts for the tops ups I have done. I have built up the credit on the meter over the year in preparation for the colder months. I usually top up £50.00 a month, by the end of the month I usually I have around £80.00 ish left on the meter. I haven’t topped up since the end of last month (Nov).
Will the key hold top up history? Will the engineer be able to retrieve the information from the meter and put it on the smart meter when they have installed it? or will I have to wait a period of time before it is transferred to the smart meter
+1- Plan Zero Hero
I’m afraid the Key gets completely cleaned out every time it gets plugged into the Meter and the Terminal at the shop. They don’t have much storage capacity.
However, OVO’s system keeps a backup copy of Meter data based on when the last top-up was performed at the shop, so that’s always safe - and the Meter itself always has everything. An engineer can just plug their programmer in and download it that way.
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