Aclara SMETS2 smart meter communication hub lights - what do the flashing sequences indicate?

Thanks Tim

Just a last minute entry, I should have thought of it before !

When I change to hourly readings I can see that the link was lost around 1.30am on 13th August on the electricity side as the 1.30am  half hour reading was never displayed:

That might be the time at which your Communications Hub was polled to pick up the data for the previous day.

The Retrieve Data command used to be sent shortly after midnight. Now that the installed base of Smart Meters is much larger, I guess the data is collected over a longer period of time.

Currently OVO’s Billing System only initiates one connection per day. I don’t know whether there’s a “network charge” for each occasion a SMETS Command gets sent across the National Smart Meter Network. But in any case, that’s why we can never see “live” usage data on the App.

@Transparent I did wonder why the data was always (up to) 24 hours out of date !

I expect there is a charge of some sort as it is,  after all, data and all data networks charge the end user in this case OVO Energy.

Cheers 

This is one of the questions I put the Kaluza representatives here last month.

The Kaluza Platform (distributed storage network control) is making decisions on which loads and sources to switch on/off based on the wholesale price of electricity per minute.

For the V2G Trial they are sending charger commands via the internet. But this is nowhere near as secure as the National Smart Meter Network operated by the Data Communications Company (DCC).

The cost of using DCC’s channel must be low enough to handle all future transactions to in-home smart devices, otherwise we leave the UK’s domestic energy supply open to attack from hostile (foreign) agents. That’s why GCHQ were involved in the development of the encryption used for our SMETS2 meter commands.

@Transparent "That’s why GCHQ were involved in the development of the encryption used for our SMETS2 meter commands."

Crikey !

I have another query if you don't mind.

If the daily connection fails (for whatever reason) can the next day connection restore all the available data ?

I think it can as sometimes when an issue is sorted, my daily energy usage sorts itself out but at other times the daily energy usage is just equally shared over the number of days that the connection was lost.

I don't really understand why this system only works some of the time when smart meters can store up to 13 months of usage data.

I read this somewhere but forgot to save the link. Doh!

I’ve read specs where a Smart Meter manufacturer has claimed their product can store 50 days or 90 days of usage data. This is usually quoted on the assumption that these will be half-hourly (HH) readings.

I presume that figure is “per tariff” because the specification requirement for these meters is that they must be able to directly handle at least 4 different tariffs across the day (not just two tariffs, as would be required for Economy-7).

The “feature” you’re seeing where data gets spread evenly across the number of days for which your Smart Meter wasn’t being polled, is an anomaly of OVO’s new Billing System. If you notice, it applies this only to gas readings. Electricity usage is allocated correctly to the relevant day once communication is re-established.

@Transparent Yes you are right, the electricity usage puts itself right so I assume that the electricity side of things has some sort of 'memory' where as with the gas 30 minute reading, for whatever reason, if the data isn't available at the time, it is lost as there's no way to save the data ?

You really know your stuff mate ;

Not quite… OVO collects all the available HH Usage Data when connection to your Comms Hub is re-established. You can view this for both electricity and gas if you use the Day-View on your Online Account.

But if you look at my Monthly histogram, you’ll see that OVO didn’t collect gas data for 25th. So the combined total for 25-26th has been apportioned across both days of the weekend.

This anomaly in the Billing Software will need fixing at some point because the Calorific Value (CV) of gas varies slightly each day. It’s not serious because the possible error is still less than 0.005%, but this will change as our Gas Distribution Network (GDN) is permitted to take more bio-gas into the mix.

Yes, I “know my stuff”… principally because I’m a member of my local Transition Towns group where we get to discuss all sorts of energy-related matters. It’s through TT that I’ve collected the contact details for a few useful engineers in the UK Energy Industry. I use those selectively to explain how something works or where I can find sources of information

@Transparent I didn't know that the calorific value changes from day to day (albeit by a minute amount)

I have heard of CV as it is used to calculate the gas bill.

I also didn't know that bio-gas will be added in the future.

This is probably something to do with going 'green'