Is the OVO SMETS1 smart meter compatible with other suppliers?

Hi all, I just want to pass on my annoyance at so called " smart meters" . I look after bills for a friend who is 93, I regularly change suppliers to find a cheaper tariff and he's had 2 different meters fitted because the one that was in was not compatible with the new supplier. Now I have recently changed to a new supplier from ovo and the meters are not compatible, so he will have had his meters changed 3 times in just over 3 years.

Is it really too much to ask to fit a meter that all suppliers use? This is taking up too much of my life, whoever come up with the idea of SMART METERS should be ashamed.

Here’s the topic you want, @Brian Scott 

Sorry to hear you’ve switched, @wrongsideof40, I’ve popped your post here as there is some handy info above.

If EDF are able to take readings they may need to re-pair the IHD to get it linked to their system, I’d recommend giving them a call.

Hope this helps!

Can anyone from OVO or the community assist with my problem below..

I have an OVO electricity pre-payment meter, had it for years - zero balance, just never really got around to changing it as I have a rolling top up online so just left the standing order in place, OVO then changed my account to the BOOST side of their business, the problem is I now cant leave BOOST because my meter isn't compatible with anyone else?

My Gas is with SSE (standard pay quarterly account / DD) who have now been bought out by OVO, so I tried to change my Electricity to them only to be told its not compatible with them either but they're the same company??

So.

SSE cant change my electricity supply to them because my meter isn't compatible.

OVO cant change my supply to them even though my agreement was originally with them as my meter is set to pre-payment

and BOOST don’t offer standard pay quarterly / DD 

so here I am trapped paying what ever BOOST would like to charge me with no apparent escape!

can someone please offer any advise on breaking this loop of hell

thanks

Here you go Blastoise186… thank you for taking the time to reply

Thanks @The Dazzler ,

I see what the reason would be. The meter you have is a SMETS1 that isn’t compatible with all suppliers. Only those which fitted SMETS1 meters back in the day would be compatible with yours - OVO and Boost being two examples of this.

I’ve just sent up an SOS Flare a few seconds ago to get help from Tim and his internal contacts. It might take a little while, but I will make sure to keep you posted when I hear back.

No worries :)

I don’t think you’re the only person who’s wanted to switch between the two sides, so there probably is a way to do it. I know that if you wanted to switch from a Pay Monthly/Credit tariff elsewhere to Boost PAYG, you’d have to switch to PAYG with the existing supplier first and then switch to Boost.

But I get the feeling that there’s probably a magic trick for internal transfers between Boost and OVO. I keep in touch with Tim constantly and he’s able to more quickly access internal teams than most of the support teams can. I can’t promise that the result will be a thumbs up, but we’ll definitely give you an honest answer.

As this community forum is open to anyone (even if you’re not an OVO customer), we’re able to give you advice on what you can do even if you can’t switch to OVO. Bear with me and I’ll aim to update you by this time tomorrow.

Thant sounds really positive! lets hope Tim confirms that.. thanks again

that's great news!! what he explains seems totally logical, they're not a charity after all. 

randomly yesterday I received a text message from E.ON saying they are installing smart meters in my area and sent me  a contact number should I wish to upgrade… seriously considering it as at least that way I will have the SMETS2 meter all the suppliers want you to have.

I’ll wait for Tim though as I believe OVO are quite competitive.

thanks again. very informative!

Hi @The Dazzler and thanks for all of that info you shared with our pro problem blaster.

As @Blastoise186 mentioned it is a Secure Liberty S1 meter. That will be upgraded to the DCC and will be compatible with all suppliers at some point before September 2021. In the meantime, these are the suppliers it’s also compatible with, last time we heard:

Utilita Energy Limited
Co-operative Energy Ltd
First Utility Ltd
Electricity Plus Supply Ltd t/a The Utility Warehouse
E (Gas & Electricity)
Spark Energy Supply Limited
Eversmart Energy Ltd
EON Energy
Robin Hood Energy Limited
Ecotricity
Bristol Energy
Our Power Energy Supply Ltd
Octopus Energy

As the sign up process is different for OVO (I know you were once with OVO, but that was when prepayment was part of the OVO offer, now it’s Boost), your best bet is to sign up to OVO having switched to another supplier listed above. However it’s worth getting this advice checked with our Support team first, as blaster mentioned. Do this here.  

Hi @The Dazzler ,

It sounds like you’ll get stuck there because similar to OVO, Octopus only does Pay Monthly/Credit tariffs and Boost only does Pay As You Go. Switching between the two types at the same time as switching supplier isn’t something that can be done easily.

I did have a chat with @Tim_OVO about this sort of situation recently and I think he’s chasing up some workarounds internally.

In the meantime, the best solution I can recommend would be to temporarily switch to a supplier capable of doing Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go tariffs while staying in PAYG mode, then switch to a Pay Monthly tariff with that supplier on a Standard Variable tariff, which should then unlock the freedom to go with any supplier who offers Pay Monthly tariffs that you fancy - provided you keep within the suppliers in Tims list for now.

I can understand that it’s not ideal, but once you’ve switched over to Pay Monthly, you shouldn’t have the same problem again.