Why has OVO exaggerated my projected usage estimates after I got a new meter?

Hi there @martinkressman .

I’m sorry to hear of the trouble there. This doesn’t sound as if it matches up with what most members experience. If you’re unhappy with the service, I would definitely recommend taking this up via OVO’s Complaints Process which is really good at handling these things.

It’s worth noting however that the estimates are not always going to be perfect and if it turns out you’re using less energy than predicted, the billing platform will identify this and should react by reducing the recommended payments to suit. Either way, you do also have the right to refund any spare credit at anytime, provided you leave enough in there to cover one months worth of payments. The platform is designed to factor in things like using more energy in winter and less in summer, along with the aim of balancing out your payments so that you end the year in credit but without being excessively in credit.

It’s not a perfect science though, and you do have the option to request a review at anytime. If you let the Support Team know that you disagree with the calculations, they can review it manually and override the system if needed. The complaints team are extremely good at resolving complaints within the five day target time too.

However, in the event that you aren’t able to resolve the complaint via OVO’s internal process, you also have the option of escalating to the Office of the Energy Ombudsman. You need to reach deadlock with OVO first before you can go to the Ombudsman however. While OVO does prefer to resolve complaints much faster than that and without having to go to the Energy Ombudsman, they will fully co-operate with the Ombudsman if needed.

I hope this helps. Please bear in mind that as I’m only a forum volunteer, I don’t have the ability to access your account or make changes directly.

Thanks

I’ve actually gone through a recent Meter Exchange myself actually, the second in two years so I know the process well.

Back in 2018 when I was still with SSE, I got my first smart meter upgrade to a SMETS1 Aclara SGM1311 that came with me when I switched to OVO in September last year. It was right around that exact point that my meter had just started to trigger the firmware upgrade to SMETS2 firmware and initiated the Enrolment & Adoption process to DCC, in order to run like a SMETS2 meter and be able to connect to OVO. It did work and eventually connected, but some other issues later resulted in a second MEX towards the end of April. I’m now on a SMETS2 Aclara SGM1411-B.

I’ve not had any of the issues you describe and in actual fact the system regularly suggests that I reduce my payments due to low usage, but I override and force it to keep them as-is because I prefer to build up spare credit. As a result of two successful MEX jobs in three years with two different suppliers and going from Traditional > SMETS1 > SMETS1+ (via firmware upgrade and E&A) > SMETS2, I’m afraid I would personally disagree with your claims. This forum is also pretty active and we’d be seeing a lot more complaints if it was a more widespread issue. I’ve basically gone all the way through all the upgrade routes and know them all well.

However, I do agree that 48% is a bit of an edge case and shouldn’t happen. I don’t agree that a smart meter would have caused this, but I do agree that it probably shouldn’t be happening.

I’ll see if @Jess_OVO is around though as she might be able to flag this sort of thing up for further review. Hopefully this can be resolved and if you have this reviewed manually, someone should be able to resolve the discrepancy.

Ooh ok. Sorry about that!

As far as I’m aware, if your usage has remained about the same, it shouldn’t cause issues like this even without a smart meter. It’s unlikely that you’ll have a traditional meter if it was replaced in November 2020 though, as suppliers don’t install them anymore outside of very, very rare edge cases at best. And that list is pretty small.

It shouldn’t affect any meter, but smart meters are theoretically less vulnerable due to the fact they all keep usage data stored locally for review if needed. Traditional meters can’t do this.

When a Meter Exchange takes place, the billing platform is designed to factor in the final readings from the old meter and the starting readings from the new meter when doing the number crunching. As long as you didn’t accidentally submit a bad reading in the meantime - which should fail validation anyway - your account should sync up properly when the process completes. The old meter readings are archived as part of the process but remain available on your previous bills and on request.

The only other thing that I can think of which would cause a huge change is if you hadn’t put meter readings in for a very long time and OVO had to rely on estimates - which are never going to be as good as actual readings. If an actual reading goes in, this will correct the account but can swing it massively into credit or debit depending on how close the estimates were.

Sorry for our misunderstanding there, @martinkressman. I’ve updated the title and my original comment to reflect this.

Unfortunately this appears to confirm my original suspicion that this is a tech issue with our new billing platform which is distorting how your projected usage is calculated. I’m really sorry that this is not the answer you were hoping for and there is no quick-fix for this issue. As our Support Team have already advised we can over-ride any erroneous direct debit suggestions which may result but it’s worth keeping an eye on the Future annual consumption figure on the ‘Plan’ page of your online account as this will naturally correct itself the more readings we get from your new meter -

Let us know if you see any changes to this figure as you submit your monthly reads...

Sorry to hear about your experiences trying to communicate this Direct Debit recommendation issue to our Support team, @martinkressman. 

Jess_OVO has raised this, as it sounds like your ‘Projected usage’ figure is wrong and needs fixing. In the meantime whilst this request is in a queue to be worked, if you get any more payment changes as a result of this, the Support team will be able to help. I’d recommend going via web chat where you can quickly link to this thread, here.

Hope it gets sorted quickly! 

Hiya @martinkressman !

Unfortunately, it’s now a bank holiday weekend so @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO might not be back until Tuesday, but I’ll let them know about this thread as they might be able to help further.

It’s possible that you might need to put some more readings in to help the billing platform re-calculate more accurate figures and give better suggestions. I don’t remember asking if you have a smart meter or not, but if you don’t have one or it’s set to Monthly mode, one of the tricks that can help is to put a reading in at least once a week. The more often you can put readings in, the faster and more accurate the suggestions become. You don’t have to have a smart meter to use this fix and it won’t work with one that’s actively submitting in Half-Hourly or Daily mode, but it will help with ones that are in Monthly mode or where you don’t have one at all.

If the data isn’t available, then I’m afraid the calculations can’t be number crunched and this will prevent you from getting accurate figures. 

Thanks for the info.

It sounds as if your account might be in a Billing Suspension right now due to the issues, but I can’t say for sure as forum volunteers don’t have access to any of the systems outside of the forum itself. When a Billing Suspension is in effect, your payments still go in and get added to your account as usual, but certain billing related tasks are temporarily paused until the suspension is lifted. This is never considered as your fault and won’t affect things like your credit rating - it’s just a technical measure to help prevent the billing from generating invalid bills. From my understanding, manually recalculating Direct Debits isn’t possible while a Billing Suspension is active. 

The way that MyOVO works however means you can still see how much you’re spending and most of the features carry on working as usual - you just won’t get a proper statement in the post or via email for a while. It is also worth noting that even if your Direct Debit payments are higher than they should be, you’ll never actually pay for energy you don’t use and you can ask for a refund at anytime. If there’s an active Billing Suspension though, you may need to ask the Support Team to do a manual refund by overriding the system from their end. However, once OVO’s systems recognise that your usage is lower than estimated, this should force it to recalculate your recommended payments and will almost certainly cause them to drop.

Hang in there for now, and this should be sorted out. I’ve asked Tim and Jess to see if they might be able to help further with any ideas as to what’s happening, but they might not be back until Tuesday due to the bank holiday.

I’m sorry for the trouble, but as a forum volunteer I can’t make any changes to your account myself and I don’t have access to any internal systems.

I know Tim and Jess very well as a result of being here and I know that they are truly dedicated to making the forum a success. It’s actually more complicated than you might think and there’s a lot of back office processes that go into fixing billing related issues.

I’ve had a look back through previous threads and Jess has previously flagged up similar issues with the team on your behalf, I’ll see if she knows of any updates on progress once she’s back. Your Direct Debit payments can also be manually adjusted by the Support Team on request if needed. You don’t need to use the Coronavirus related 20% reduction option as there’s a way to manually force the regular payments to be reduced to more realistic levels in cases such as your own.

If you’re still unhappy with the service though, I would strongly recommend raising this as a formal complaint via the Complaints Process. If you’ve already done that and reached a deadlock, you may want to ask the Energy Ombudsman for further assistance and they’ll take a look. OVO does prefer to try to resolve complaints much earlier in the process and without having to have Ombudsman intervention, but OVO will fully co-operate if you do end up going down that route.

Unfortunately, I can’t relay messages to any teams on behalf of other members as I don’t have that ability. The best I can do is notify the Community Moderators about threads that may need further assistance and wait for someone to stop by. As it’s a bank holiday weekend, I don’t know if they’ll be around until Tuesday but I’ve already notified them about this thread.

This forum is volunteer led and I’m a forum volunteer rather than an OVO employee, so I don’t have access to internal systems. What I can say is that there’s usually a timeframe of around 45 days to resolve cases where possible at the very most, but that it’s usually much faster than that.

However, It appears that you might not be willing to accept my assistance, so I’ll be withdrawing from this thread for now. Other volunteers might stop by later though.

Sorry that you’re still having issues with your recommended Direct Debit amount, @martinkressman. As this is related to the original projected usage issue, I have merged these threads together to provide some context to others finding the thread in future.

Our community volunteer and fellow OVO member, @Blastoise186 has given some really sound advice - 

Unfortunately we’re unable to take actions on your account directly here, but if you’re still getting inaccurate direct debit suggestions, it would be best to contact our Support Team who can place your Direct Debit on a temporary hold if needed. If you are not happy with this solution a complaint can be raised which will be fully investigated by our Complaints team. They will be best placed to access your account history and come to a resolution you are happy with. 

On 10/6/21 I finally received the manual calculation from OVO Energy that I requested on 14/5/21. They have now reopened the complaint and are going to go through the recalculation procedure all over again. Thus the can is kicked yet further down the road. Who knows how long this is going to go on for?

Hi,

Yup. OVO does indeed factor in your account balance when the algorithm performs the number crunching. I know this because it keeps trying to force my own payments right down to almost the lowest possible amount because of my circumstances. My account balance right now is almost enough to surf my way through the rest of my current contract, but I override the system and leave it as is because I prefer to build up a buffer.

It goes without saying that regardless of the calculations and estimates, you will never actually pay for any energy you don't use. The rest remains on your account to be carried over to the next billing cycle and you can always request a refund if needed. You only need to keep at least one month worth of credit at a minimum, but I don't recommend letting it get that low as it may affect your account standing later.

As you have chosen to escalate to the Energy Ombudsman, I'm afraid that we won't be able to assist you further with this issue until after the Ombudsman has decided on the outcome. I don't like to interfere with that process and I'm afraid it wouldn't be appropriate to jump in and get in the way.