Difficulty due to RTS meter being inside beside fuse boxes and not outside in main meter box?

Howdy ​@ColliesRGreat ,

I think I know what you’ve got, but could you show us some snaps to be sure please? If it’s what I think it is, a solution is coming very soon so don’t panic.

Hi ​@ColliesRGreat and welcome to the OVO Forum!

As ​@Blastoise186 has said, try not to panic - we’ll do our best to get you sorted. Once you’ve sent in the photos as requested we’ll be able to get one of our Metering experts to check over them and get a better answer for you.

Blastoise186 and Ben_OVO many thanks for your reply and also for taking the time to engage with my query, much appreciated. I took some photos of my meter setup in the flat as requested that show both the RTS meter inside the property next to the main fuse boxes and also the main PAYG meter outside the property in the meter box in the communal hallway.

​@ColliesRGreat many thanks for the clear photos. I’m tagging ​@Lukepeniket_OVO here to get his expert opinion on this one, he should be in touch soon 😁.

hello all!

Yes remote RTS setup but im also looking at that backboard thinking is it a ACM? Could you DM me an account number so I can have a look in the background? cheers

I have sent a DM to you.

Thanks.

​@Lukepeniket_OVO Hello, and thank you kindly for taking the time to look at the photos and do some investigation. I am assuming the solution will be available and the meter changed before the dealine of the end of this month?

I tihnk what is hugely frustrating is that the flat is part of a group of 6 flats that were all built at the same time and all their RTS meters would appear to have been removed and swapped with smart meters. I opened the outside cabinets of all the other properties and they all have smart meters installed. It is most likely that at the time of construction (80’s) all 6 flats would have had the same electricity installations. It seems dissappointing that OVO do not seem to have a solution for this, yet other suppliers do…

Thanks again for your help.

Morning!! =]

​@ColliesRGreat, the switch off wont be an immediate deadline where everyone goes off at the same time. Our solution is really close to being signed off and enabled, once that is done everyone will be contacted in due course =] sorry I cant offer more at this point.

In the 1980s, there was no distinction between electricity suppliers and electricity distributors; the Electricity Board saw to everything for the customer. This changed after privatization, and it’s likely that RTS systems in houses just fell into a grey area between supplier and DNO. Many RTS systems were removed before smart meters were introduced, meaning that a subsequent smart meter exchange wouldn’t have presented the sort of challenge you’re now facing. I’m sure it’s not just a question of some suppliers being able to do the job while others can’t. In your part of the world, the supplier/distributor/transmitter/generator relationship was fundamentally incestuous until just a few years ago, with Scottish Hydro/SSE responsible for everything as far as the customer was concerned. OVO acquired an awful lot of conflicts when it took over SSE’s retail arm in 2020 ...

​@Firedog Thanks for contributing, that’s an interesting case you make in defense of OVO there. However it does not help our situation which is entirely not of our making. The whole situation all seems terribly last minute / 11th hour and we surely cannot be unique to this particular setup throughout the UK.

Surely our type of setup was flagged many months ago with hundreds it not thousands of other properties, yet we are told to await on an impending solution. Irrespective of whether some of the RTS meters in our block were removed years ago matters not. We are in the situation we find ourselves in due to, I beleive, lack of forward thinking and planning on behalf of OVO.

Customer care and satisfaction is critiucal to the operation of any business and the fact it has taken us to have to come to this forum and seek advice, and to be given the kind assistance and information from ​@Lukepeniket_OVO, I think is poor on the part of OVO as an organisation. This could all have been dealt with in a much cleaner and concice manner from OVO, keeping the customer informed all the way. It has pretty much been finger in the air stuff.

As for the switch of being phased out in different areas, what if our area is one of the ones to be swtiched off. We have no idea if that will be the case or not. Are we just meant to gamble and hope for the best.

‘Months’ is a short time in the life of developments like this. I know that OVO’s metering labs spent years (3?) trying to cobble together a smart meter solution for complicated tariffs like THTC. It was eventually released for a carefully-managed deployment in August last year. I can’t say when the difficulty with RTS units remote from the meter came to light, but the first we heard of it here in the forums was sometime in the spring. I think the problem is that meter engineers aren’t electricians, but re-connecting RTS-controlled equipment to a newly-installed smart meter will need skills that meter engineers just don’t have. 

There have been few details revealed of the phased switch-off. It’s fairly certain that the service will be switched off first to small groups of customers where most of the RTS systems have been dismantled. This will give valuable experience for suppliers and distributors to show what happens to those households that haven’t yet been upgraded. 

There are probably not many households worrying about heating not working properly at the moment. Hot water is more problematic, but it’s probably no different from the home of my youth where the immersion heater was switched on and off as required. There will undoubtedly be stragglers left behind after 1 October, but suppliers will be falling over themselves to get them sorted out as quickly as they can.

Also worth noting that most RTS setups had failsafe functionality - it can run temporarily even without the control signal.

What we can’t say however, is how reliable said failsafe is for each individual setup and/or how long it’d work for without breaking. It’s best not to rely on it long term.

​@Firedog I think you have just hit the nail on the head there ‘I think the problem is that meter engineers aren’t electricians’… take from that what you will. Having ran my own business for over 22 years I know what I take from it.

Daughter arranged for her Prepayment / THTC meter to be changed  but they said they can't  do it because she has a remote RTS

Now she is getting  letters about the posed switch off 

Any ideas of the next move ?

Cheers 

Hi ​@Skeck ,

I don’t think the Remote RTS solution is ready juuuust yet - but it’s coming soon. Hang in there for a bit longer!

Cheers 

As long as they don't  switch her area off before tge solution is available 

These mass ‘don't delay’ communications do make for a dilema though.

Those with things like remote RTS are told-

“The kit needed to replace your particular RTS set up isn't quite ready yet, so you can ignore those ‘standard’  hurry-up communications”.

How is the average customer supposed to discern if it's a message that can/should be ignored or one saying “The new kit needed is now ready so book an appointment”?

Hey ​@Skeck,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community, I can see our community members have given some helpful advice here. 

Just wanted to add the following:

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/the-radio-teleswitch-service-switch-off-what-you-need-to-know/

From 30 June 2025, the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) will start to phase out as it is reaching the end of its operational life. RTS is also known as Dynamic Teleswitch Service (DTS). The switch-off will affect energy customers who have an RTS meter in their home, and may mean their heating and hot water supply stops functioning as normal.

There will not be a mass switch off of the RTS national signal on 30 June 2025. From this date, a phase out will begin of the RTS functionality for small groups of meters at a time. Customers will be informed directly. 
 

Hope this helps.