Third-party access to smart meter data: recent failures

Hello everyone - to confirm, the energy supplier gets the data from the Aclara meters just fine - but the DCC Other User role (which is what Hildebrand, n3rgy and CGI carry) cannot get the data for a subset of meters. Some come back and start reporting - and we aren’t sure why.

DCC and the meter manufacturer continue with their investigations; and we keep checking in on their progress.

Thanks for the info Jane. 

Its not a great look for such an important organisation thats housing all of our data. 

OK, thanks. The first suggestion would be to remove the various accounts altogether, and possibly uninstall the apps so long as there aren’t any data there you haven’t salted away safely. Then re-install and set up the account again. There’s some indication that existing accounts that have lost communication to the meter don’t get it back again unless the app is required to start again from scratch.

The support staff are usually helpful; I’ve had sterling service from both Bright and Hugo. n3rgy appear to have gone off in a huff and aren’t accepting new accounts, possibly explained by this rant: (11) Consumer Consent Calamity | LinkedIn  

I only setup Bright today after reading about it on here and it’s returned the exact same last update date as the other apps. It’s not an app issue, it’s the data getting to the DCC as per the above. 
 

I’ve also had excellent comms from both loop and Hugo - it’s just OVO themselves that seem clueless (although I think they were being purposefully “clueless” to buy themselves extra time as it is clearly a known issue to both OVO staff and the DCC staff). 
 

This is after having an issue about 2 years ago with the gas meter not sending readings to OVO and not one person anywhere could figure it out. They resorted to ripping the meter out and replacing it. 
 

I’m a technical engineer, so this type of incompetence is extremely frustrating. 

I don’t think OVO are at fault here. Access to your data on the meter is controlled exclusively by DCC, and OVO have no part to play. They are aware of the problems faced by some customers having difficulty retrieving data via third parties, but there’s nothing they can do other than tell DCC about the unhappy customers. Not incompetence, but impotence. Be grateful that Jane and Clive from Bright and Aclara’s engineers are keeping the pressure up on DCC to get the system working again.  

While I concur that OVO may not be entirely responsible for the issue, they must assume accountability for the situation. Customers are advised to contact their supplier, who should then engage in direct communication with the DCC.

This process should not be overly complex. My issue has persisted for more than six months without any resolution in sight.

It is important to note that I am deeply appreciative of Jane and the team’s efforts in providing information. However, OVO has proven to be utterly ineffective in addressing my concerns. 

I think you’ve made the point here .. if OVO are getting your usage readings then they have (almost) no interest in access by third parties. 
All suppliers - as far as I’m aware - also don’t get their data directly from DCC but use another organisation as an accumulator to get what they require to enable operation and billing. So I’m not surprised that support staff as generally not aware of DCC. 
Add to that, neither the meter manufacturers nor DCC fully understand why the situation exists for some customers and so it has been down to the third parties themselves to try to figure out and get something done. 
This also has affected a number of different suppliers .. I myself had the problem however I am not supplied by OVO. 

Hello all,

This situation is nothing to do with OVO at all - other than the fact that they host the forum where the topic is under discussion. The only entities that can (potentially) resolve it are the DCC and the meter manufacturer. They are working on it but it feels as though the root cause is still unknown.

While I’m here, it is also really important to appreciate that the DCC are not the data repository, your energy meters are the data repository. The DCC are the secure conduit to that data.

The meters in question, and they are only a small subset of all that type of meter, are not responding to a request to return their readings from a DCC Other User (Hugo sub-contract n3rgy’s service who are the Other User for them). Then, for no apparent reason, we see some of them recovering.

The good news is 1) I don’t believe we’ve seen any new meters in this state since June, and 2) there is investigation underway (sometimes it takes a very long time to get to that point).