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We have an asbestos fuse- How do I get OVO to inform the DNO?

  • 23 September 2022
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We have an asbestos fuse, which needs to be replaced before a smart meter can be installed.  First the engineer (who was meant to install the smart meter) said he’d request it from the UK Power Networks, who need a D0135 from the energy provider in order to arrange for the works. Nothing happened for a good few, months,  so I contacted customer services. Three customer service agents assured me that the D0135 has been sent, but the UK Power Networks haven’t received anything. Not sure where to go from here. Can anybody help? 

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Best answer by Tim_OVO 26 September 2022, 10:48

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Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hey @Sonklu,

 

Sorry for the issues you’ve had.

 

As this is account specific and I don’t have access to your notes, I can only speculate. If 3 separate agents have confirmed the D0135 has been sent to the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) it sounds like you may have to wait for them to receive and process it. 

 

Have you tried contacting UK Power Networks directly? I have found a page on their site about fuse replacements.

 

Keep us posted with how you get on.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
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Hi Emanuelle, 

This has been happening over at least 7 months or so. The three occasions, doesn’t include the original engineer who came to fit the smart meter and also assured me that he would initiate the process.

I have had a couple of emails back and forth with the UK `Power Networks, and the last time Chloe replied saying: “Having triple checked i can confirm we haven't received any reports from your supplier.”

Would you be able to look into it? I can PM you my account number and other info you may need. 

Best wishes,

Sonja

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hey @Sonklu,

 

Sorry for the issues you’ve had.

 

I’m afraid I won’t be able to check your account or access your notes. The OVO Online Community is a place to offer general advise and support to our members.

 

I’d advise contact Support in this case. 

 

Keep us posted with how you get on!

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
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Hello Emmanuelle, 

I have exhausted all the options of contact on your customer support page the link you have sent me above. I have spent many hours on hold on the telephone, as well as on your online chat to support. Three people who I have reached that way who assured me that they had sent the D0135 but it clearly didn’t happen despite their assurance. Could you please  help me to get through to somebody who is going to action this? Getting in touch with your support team clearly didn’t help. I have also seen on here that Community Moderators have offered to help and asked for customer numbers, so I would be really grateful if you could process my request. 
Best wishes,
Sonja

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Hello @Emmanuelle_OVO ?

Is there any way you can help? The customer service pathway really hasn’t worked. 

Best,

Sonja

Tim_OVO
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Updated on 20/07/23 by Emmanuelle_OVO

Hi @Sonklu and thanks for the update on this. 

 

We’ve got another forum topic about the same thing:

 

 

DNO timeframes for visits depend on the category of the job that the supplier (or rather, the engineer) creates. 

 

Who’s responsible for replacing a meter backboard?


As you can see on our great guide, the meter backboard is maintained by your Distribution Network Operator (DNO). It sounds like Scottish Power Energy Networks are your DNO, so our engineer will have notified them of the issue.  The DNO should contact you to schedule in the necessary work based on it’s urgency, see the timeframes for each category below:

 

Category Timescale for DNO to attend
A Emergency - fix will be implemented ASAP, usually that day.
B 4-6 weeks
C 4-6 months


Unfortunately we cannot speed any of these up - as they are decided by the DNO, although if you’re still waiting to hear from them it might be worth contacting them directly to check when the maintenance work will be scheduled.

 

You can find out more about DNO’s (including their contact details) on our DNO guide.

 

 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Dear @Tim_OVO 
Yes, I have seen this post. The problem is that OVO is NOT sending the D0135 form to the DNO. They have not received it, despite three different customer service people at OVO telling me that they had sent it. How can I get OVO to send a D0135 to the London Power Network? Please help

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Hi @Tim_OVO 
Is there any way you can help me in getting the OVO 0135 form to the London Power Network? Thank you

Tim_OVO
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Hi @Sonklu - I’ve just asked our Forum_Support team to reach out to you about this. 

 

Thanks,
Tim

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Hi @Tim_OVO, I have the exact same problem. SSE engineers were sent to install smart meter 20 and 12 months ago and both said they couldn’t because of an asbestos fuse and would file the information with UKPN, however checking with UKPN they said that SSE/ OVO have only provided C-Code information, not a DO135, and that OVO need to send a DO135 to UKPN. 
 

I’ve spoken to OVO customer service and they just told me to contact UKPN. I feel like I’m stuck in a vicious circle. Can you help? 

Tim_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Thanks for flagging this, @Ethanlyv - I’m raising this internally to make sure people are aware that there seems to be an issue with the advice customers are getting between the energy supplier and the DNO. Both companies can’t be right.

 

It may be that we have sent that info (flow), and it’s an issue with the DNO. In which case there’s not much we can do. Alternatively it may be that we’re not sending the right flow. 

 

Hope this gets sorted for you quickly,
Tim

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Thanks for flagging this, @Ethanlyv - I’m raising this internally to make sure people are aware that there seems to be an issue with the advice customers are getting between the energy supplier and the DNO. Both companies can’t be right.

 

It may be that we have sent that info (flow), and it’s an issue with the DNO. In which case there’s not much we can do. Alternatively it may be that we’re not sending the right flow. If you’ve now joined OVO from SSE (if you haven’t heard from us to confirm this migration, you’re still with SSE), can you request that OVO’s Support team raise a ‘case’ to the relevant internal team for this to be revised.  If you’re still with SSE, it’s them that need to do this.

 

Hope this gets sorted for you quickly,
Tim

 

 

thanks @Tim_OVO. We’ve definitely migrated over to OVO so I will contact the OVO support team to resolve this. Thanks.

 

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@Tim_OVO i’ve just spoken to OVO Support and I keep getting the same message repeated back to me: 

We are only responsible for the meters, we cannot carry out any work until you have rectified the issue. This unfortunately will not change and we will never have asbestos trained engineers. Once you have sorted this then we can do our job for you.

I even copy and pasted your message on this thread to them, which they’ve just ignored and put me to the back of the chat queue again.

Tim_OVO
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Hi @Ethanlyv, thanks for the update. I’ve asked our Forum Support team to contact you via a private message. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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I am facing a similar issue my original smart meter appointment was pre covid and nothing has moved.  Admittedly i hadnt chased it as we were on a good fixed tariff and the smart meter wasn't as important. Re engaging with OVO now we are about to go back to standard tariffs (and i would appreciate having a smart meter to monitor usage) and I am just getting told to contact the DNO who themselves are asking for the D0135 form.  I'm thinking it may be better just to switch suppliers and kick start the process again? 

Blastoise186
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Hey @Bonny86 ,

Who is your DNO? I might be able to get some info out of them for you.

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Thanks its uk power networks.  To be honest they were ok to deal with and book an appointment its just the D0135 form they were insistent on which OVO havent sent in nearly 3 years.  But if you can help that would be amazing.

 

Our fixed term ends at the end of this month and to be honest if things havent moved on by then I will just switch suppliers

Blastoise186
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Thanks. I can’t make changes myself, but I can certainly try to contact them to see what they recommend. Bear with me as this may take a few days.

Actually… This might be easier than I thought. I just have to bypass some geo-locking stuff to get my call to go through despite not being in their area… Once the lines are back open later this week...

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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Thanks for this anything you can do to help would be amazing 

Blastoise186
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No worries. I can only get general/generic info, but it should be good enough.

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Blastoise186
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Oh great… I got stuck in RoboOperatorLand again… Out of all the DNOs I’ve spoken to so far, their phone system is probably the most annoying.

I did at least manage to get through to a really good agent after breaking the bot. UKPN are insistent that the supplier needs to send that form as a B Code before they’ll deal with you. As you’ve been waiting a rather long time, I’ll ask @Emmanuelle_OVO to stop by.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Tim_OVO
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Yep I’ve seen a few examples of this in 2022. OVO says ‘we’ve sent the info to the DNO’, the DNO say ‘We haven’t got the info from OVO’. Who knows who’s in the wrong, but the customer suffers. @Bonny86 can we try plan A and chase this up with our Support team via an online chat? That way you can link to this topic and explain that we need a ‘case’ raised with Siteworks to send the correct data flow. 

 

Failing that, I can ask our Forum_Support team to do the same. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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This morning I was told couldn't have my smart meters fitted today because of this problem but the engineer was very reassuring.  He said that Ovo would contact UK Power Networks and they would come and change the fuse for a modern one.  If it looked like it might a couple of months before UK Power Networks could swap the fuse, Ovo could even send an engineer with asbestos training to do my smart meters installation in the meantime. 

Then I saw this thread and got very worried.  Has the communication problem between Ovo and UK Power Networks been resolved yet?  Or do all requests to swap asbestos fuses still get permanently stuck forever?  Does Ovo really have engineers with Asbestos training?  I think I read something on this forum to the effect that this wasn't going to happen.

Blastoise186
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Howdy @RedCow 

OVO can’t do main fuse swaps at all as it’s DNO equipment. Bear with me as I’m just going to give UKPN a quick call myself - I can usually get useful information this way.

Ironically enough, there’s an OVO Engineer right outside my flat right now lol.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Blastoise186
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Sheesh… Talk about terrible systems… Took me over five minutes to get through Robo Operator Land (the average for a DNO in my experience is more like 30 seconds) and more than 10 minutes to get through to a rep (average for a DNO in my experience is more like 10 seconds).

It’s no wonder UKPN never seems to get anything done…

I eventually got through and managed to get an answer. Unfortunately, UKPN won’t let me post it publicly, so I’ll send it you privately in a second - every other DNO that I speak to has always been OK with answers going public. TBH this is a terrible way of doing customer service on their part as it means I can’t post an answer that helps the community despite the answer being basically the same as what others have said. Oh well. And it’s bonkers because literally anyone can phone up and get the exact same answer I got.

I can’t risk getting UKPN mad, but I can go off of the advice given by another DNO recently who did give permission - credit to them for doing the right thing!

Unfortunately, you can’t request this yourself. The other DNO mentioned that a D0135 form sent by the supplier with a B Code should do the job.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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