Failed switch from THTC in Highlands

Sorry to hear that the migration from THTC didn’t go smoothly for you.

When the meter exchange was booked (a long time ago, perhaps? It’s 3 months since the RTS signal was finally cut off ...), you would have been asked to choose a plan to replace THTC. Did you opt for Economy 7 (E7) then? With storage heaters, you may also have been offered E9 or E10. Do you have written confirmation of your choice, perhaps in the notification you had about the meter engineer’s visit?

This matters, because meters are usually pre-configured for the plan chosen. While it might be possible to change to single-rate metering later, it’s not straightforward to change from single-rate to Economy 7 as you seem to be asking for. Things may have changed a bit in the past couple of years, but this certainly used to call for a meter exchange.

Thanks Firedog. I own the cottage, but the change of meters happened whilst the cottage was tenanted. I knew nothing about the switch until the tenant moved out on Sep 14th. On having a look in the cottage I saw the new meter, called OVO to setup a new account. Apparently at the OVO end, my account has a big banner at the top saying something about “unsuitable tariff”. The customer support people attempt to set me up with Economy 7, but at a later point in the system, the selection of Economy 7 is rejected.

I don’t think the tenant used the heating over the summer, so problem only showing up now.

I think it’s possible that the new meter cannot communicate with outside world. We are remote.

Morning ​@skyefarmer and welcome to the community! 

Before the meters were replaced, do you happen to know if your address had access to multi-rate plans? If you could share a photo of the meter and the surrounding wiring, that would really help us understand your current setup! 

For accounts like yours, calls usually go to our specialist heating team, so it’s possible that you’ve already chatted with them. There might be a little system issue that’s stopping them from moving you to Economy 7. If that’s the case, they’ve likely raised a technical ticket with our back office to look into it and help you switch to a plan that suits your setup better. 

Once we have a chance to see the meter and your setup, we’ll be in a great position to give you more tailored advice. 

Thanks ​@Chris_OVO . I’ve attached pic of my new meter.

Thanks.

Just FYI, modern smart meters are designed so that they work properly even though communication with the mothership is lost, so readings have to be submitted manually. However, the initial set-up at installation time normally requires the meter to be in communication to complete the commissioning process. This includes acquiring the Tariff Switching Table (the timetable that e.g. tells a multi-rate meter when to switch from recording on the peak register to recording on the offpeak one and vice versa) and the ALCS calendar (a timetable to determine when power to storage heaters etc. is switched on and off). In locations like Skye with unreliable communication, it would be prudent to pre-configure the meter with these details just in case commissioning over-the-air doesn’t work. 

OVO Support should be able to tell you whether the meter is communicating properly; they can request a meter reading while you wait, for example. That would then explain why any attempt at remote configuration fails if indeed it does. If Support stop being helpful (that does happen!), the next stage is to enter a formal complaint, in writing. This isn’t necessarily unpleasant - it just enables a process to start involving staff in a position to do something about the problem being ‘complained’ about. Here’s how: Want to make a complaint? | Our complaints procedure | OVO Energy.  

How is the mobile phone coverage at the cottage, particularly Vodafone’s? Any Internet connection there?

And - I’m just being curious here - the engineer who installed the new meter should have left a ‘Meter Exchange Label’ close by it, a form on a flimsy bit of paper with details of who completed it and of the old and new meters. If it’s there, it should say whether the engineer was one of OVO’s own or a sub-contractor. 

I’m sorry, but ​@Chris_OVO managed to respond before I got to post my reply. 

Thanks so much for the photo - it explains a lot!

1. The meter is not communicating with OVO. To do so, it needs an extra element - a Communications Hub (CH) usually intimately connected on top of the meter where there’s just a blanking cover now, but sometimes a bit ‘outside the box’ so to speak. I’ve not seen a photo before of a meter deliberately installed with no CH - the engineer must have been pretty confident that no signal would ever reach it. 
     
2. The meter has an ALCS designed to switch power on to the storage heaters only at the start of an offpeak period. You would have to watch the heaters to see what the ALCS is doing - what times it switches the heaters (most probably including an immersion heater in the hot water tank) and off again. It’s the cable labelled LLL that’s serving the heating circuit.
     
   At the time the photo was taken, there was no power to the heating circuit. This is shown by the little ‘open switch’ icon labelled ıı in the bottom right-hand corner of the display. It shows something different if the heating power is on.
     
3. Without a CH, I don’t think there’s any way OVO that can configure this meter where it is. It has to be done either at headquarters or over the air. I’m fairly sure this means you’re stuck with single-rate billing until the meter can be exchanged. 

Thanks ​@Firedog . It’s encouraging that the meter should be able to function once configured. There is no Vodafone signal, the only mobile phone operator locally is EE. When cycling through the displays on the meter this morning, one displayed “Signal strength -99dB”, which looks to me like the default display for “no signal”. I shall look for a Meter Exchange Label. Also, when setting up the account I agreed to 30min meter readings, but on a subsequent call Support said they were not receiving any readings.

Without a Communications Hub attached to the meter there is absolutely no way that they can be getting any automated readings.

You (or your tenant) wold(will) have to send in regular readings yourself to avoid estimated bills.

That being the case then I can’t see why you could not send in readings for peak (TOU rate 1) and off-peak (presumably TOU Rate 2) and be billed for an E7, E9, or E10 tariff on that basis.

Maybe it’s more of a procedural issue?

my account has a big banner at the top saying something about “unsuitable tariff”. The customer support people attempt to set me up with Economy 7, but at a later point in the system, the selection of Economy 7 is rejected.

It is quite unusual to have a smart meter with no communications hub, so that oddity may be what is causing  the problem?
i.e. The system expects a communicating smart meter, and is rejecting E7 because your isn’t/can’t be communicating.