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PAYG meter blank after power cut?

  • 14 January 2024
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Hi.  We had a 7 hour power cut today and when our electric came back on our prepayment key meter display was blank.  
 

i have read it probably means we will have to have a new meter but I was wondering what happens to the credit we had on there?  I dont know the exact amount and obviously cant tell from the meter now because the display is blank.  If we do have a new meter will OVO know how much credit to put on the new meter?  Apart from the receipt from buying the electric I dont have any way of proving how much we had before the power cut.  
 

also Im on economy 7.  Will my storage heaters come on as usual?  
 

hope someone can help.

thank you sammy

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Best answer by Blastoise186 14 January 2024, 12:00

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Blastoise186
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Hi @Sammy11 ,

This is not a fault, but a safety feature. The meter has gone into Free Vend Mode as a result of that powercut. You’ll still need to pay for what you use, but the meter will give you “unlimited” credit until it gets reset by an engineer. They will try to recover your credit for you and restore that to the meter balance, but there will also be a debt to pay back via the meter to cover what was used in the meantime. This will be paid back slowly at a rate you can agree with OVO, but please let the Support Team know if you want to speed up or slow down the repayments. As soon as the debt balance hits zero, debt collection mode will automatically disable itself and no further repayments will be taken.

Economy 7 functionality should continue to work in the meantime.

You might also be able to make a one-off payment directly to OVO to clear all or part of the balance in one go, which would then be wiped from the meter. Please put any top-up money aside for now either way - you’ll need it later.

To avoid racking up too much debt, please contact OVO ASAP and let them know what’s happened - they’ll get someone out to you.

If you’d like to get Smart Meters, I’d recommend doing that only after the existing meter has been reset and any debt balance from this incident has been cleared.

Hope that helps!

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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Hi @Blastoise186 thank you for replying.  Ive contacted OVO but as we do have electricity we are not an emergency,  I will try again tomorrow during ‘normal office hours’.  The eco 7 didn't kick in last night so we don't have any heating but thankfully we do not have any vulnerable people in the household to worry about.

Thank you for reassuring me that the my credit should be recovered 🤞 once the meter is sorted.

sammy

Blastoise186
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No worries. I’m here if you need me for anything else.

The reason for Free Vend Mode is basically to avoid you getting into a situation where you’re completely unable to top-up due to meter damage, or if the configs got corrupted by the power failure.

It’s ultimately better to just give the customer temporary unlimited credit until someone can swing by to fix things, than to cut them off for something beyond your reasonable control.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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Just a follow up for anyone in the same position as me where a power cut has affected your electric meter and economy 7 no longer works.   
 

I contacted OVO (via web chat as could not get thru on the phone) on 15/01/24 and told them the situation.  I also said that I didn't have any heating because my off peak supply was not working therefore my storage heaters hadn't come on.  They arranged an appointment for an engineer to come out on 22/01/24, so I have had the last 10 days without heating just as temperatures took a turn for the worse 🥶

 

Anyway, an OVO engineer called in today and I have now had a smart meter installed.  However, he did say that because my off peak supply was not working I should have been made an emergency as I rely on that for heating my home.  He said I should have had an engineer out to me within 3 hours of reporting the problem not 7 days.

I kept screen shots of my web chat and I was asked ‘do you have supply to the property?’.  To which I replied ‘yes, but no heating’ as I assumed they meant do I have electricity which I did.  
 

So the moral of the story is, if you do not have your off peak supply working then you do NOT have supply to your property and should therefore get priority treatment.  
 

Have to say the engineer was lovely and Im now looking forward to waking up tomorrow to a much warmer house!

 
 

 

Firedog
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… I should have been made an emergency as I rely on that for heating my home. 

… Im now looking forward to waking up tomorrow to a much warmer house!

 

Thank you for pointing this out. I’m surprised that Support didn’t realize how critical heating is for all-electric customers at this time of year.

Not to alarm you, but we’ve recently seen several examples of new smart meters installed and set up for Economy 7 by the engineer where the heating didn’t come on the first night after all - my own included. So please check your meter readings before bed tonight: there will be two of them, probably called Rate 1 and Rate 2. Then, if you do wake up to a cold house tomorrow morning, note those readings again so you have some evidence for Support, who you’ll have to call again and tell that your heating didn’t come on. Don’t let them persuade you that ‘it will take some time to come right’ - it most probably won’t come right unless the metering team make a remote adjustment. 

If yours worked properly from day 1, please come back and say so! 

 

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
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Hi @Firedog Im glad to say the economy 7 worked and we have woken up to a warm house!  

Firedog
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Im glad to say the economy 7 worked and we have woken up to a warm house!  

 

That’s brilliant! Thanks for telling us, and sorry to be such a pessimist 🙃

I’m not sure how significant this is - it depends a lot on the type of meter installed - but if it means that the installation fault several customers were seeing has been found and rectified, it’s really good news. 

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

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