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mandileek
Rank 2
December 9, 2025
Solved

Meter screen blank after powercut

  • December 9, 2025
  • 17 replies
  • 1153 views

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

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:

 

 

17 replies

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M
Rank 2
mandileekAuthor
Rank 2
December 9, 2025

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

 

    R
    Newcomer
    Readingworm1987
    Newcomer
    December 13, 2025

    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?

    B
    Rank 12
    Bendog
    Rank 12
    December 14, 2025

    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. 

    R
    Newcomer
    Readingworm1987
    Newcomer
    December 14, 2025

    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?

    Ben_OVO
    Community Manager
    Ben_OVO
    Community Manager
    December 15, 2025

    ​@Readingworm1987 welcome to the OVO Forum. I hope you’re well.

     

    ​@Bendog thanks for your great replies on this thread - much appreciated.

     

    ​@Readingworm1987 regarding the £80 - do you still have a receipt for the top ups? If so you can send it to our Support Team and they’ll ensure the money is added to the new smart meter when it’s installed. If you don’t have the receipt, we should still be able to look up your history of top ups to see how much you had. Also, when the meter is removed, we may be able to tell how much credit was on it. All in all, don’t worry, we have ways and means of ensuring you’ll get your money.

     

    I hope this helps. 

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    R
    Newcomer
    Readingworm1987
    Newcomer
    December 15, 2025

    ​@Readingworm1987 welcome to the OVO Forum. I hope you’re well.

     

    ​@Bendog thanks for your great replies on this thread - much appreciated.

     

    ​@Readingworm1987 regarding the £80 - do you still have a receipt for the top ups? If so you can send it to our Support Team and they’ll ensure the money is added to the new smart meter when it’s installed. If you don’t have the receipt, we should still be able to look up your history of top ups to see how much you had. Also, when the meter is removed, we may be able to tell how much credit was on it. All in all, don’t worry, we have ways and means of ensuring you’ll get your money.

     

    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

    Blastoise186
    Super User
    Blastoise186Super User
    Super User
    December 15, 2025

    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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