Good morning @Tedbarn ,

Sorry to have kept you waiting! I planned to respond last night but got called away to some other tasks.

Thanks for that photo by the way, it’s extremely helpful! If I’m seeing things correctly, your smart meter looks like a Landis+Gyr E470? The Communications Hub on it is certainly unusual. If that’s the case, it appears you have a SMETS1 Smart Meter, one of the older ones that originally couldn’t work properly with all suppliers, while a SMETS2 can work seamlessly across them all.

The good news however, is that you won’t need to have that meter replaced at all in order to get a SMETS2 meter. While there is indeed plenty of space for one (such as an Aclara SGM1400 Series meter),  your current one should be getting a firmware upgrade sooner or later which will upgrade it to behave like a SMETS2 meter - including the ability to switch suppliers freely and not lose any features.

I’m pleased to confirm that your Landir+Gyr E470 is indeed on the list of meters that will be upgraded and migrated to SMETS2, as per this really handy page on SmartMe. Once the upgrade is done, you’ll be able to use your current meter with OVO (or anyone else!) just like you did with British Gas when it was first installed.

If there’s anything else we can help with, please let us know.

Hello Blastoise186,

I can honestly say I do not think I have received such a helpful and informative response to any post I have made on a forum - thank you so much!

I had a closer look at the smart meter and it is indeed a Landis+Gyr E470. The Trilliant Communications Hub has the model number SEAP-2000-V listed on it.

I had no idea my smart meter could have a firmware upgrade and am in the process of switching to a new OVO plan that is not one of the smart meter plans. I assume I cannot switch to a smart meter plan until the firmware upgrade has taken place?

Many thanks,

Tedbarn

You’re most welcome @Tedbarn 

Thanks for your feedback, I’m glad my post was helpful.

The ability to do firmware upgrades is a pretty common feature shared by all SMETS1 and SMETS2 capable smart meters, although the exact methods of how it’s done can vary.

I was actually looking into some details about the Landis+Gyr meters earlier, and it does seem that some of them like the E470 use an external communications hub rather than a built-in one. Strange design choice, but that’s just how L+G chose to do it.

The good news is that you’re welcome to switch between any of the plans that OVO offers and your smart features will still work just fine. Since you already have a smart meter, the only one you can’t go for right now is Better Smart Energy as that’s only for new customers who don’t have one at all yet. Other than that one, you can choose any plan that takes your fancy right now. The smart features will work just fine regardless of which plan you’re on too.

If your meter doesn’t communicate with OVO initially, you would need to submit readings manually for a while, but OVO are great at letting you know if that’s the case - and they’ll also let you know when your smart meter starts to submit readings properly.

The firmware upgrades are being done remotely and you won’t need an engineer visit to get yours done. If you’re unsure whether yours has been upgraded yet, the support team will be happy to look up the status on the national database ECOES for you.

In the meantime, feel free to choose any tariff on offer and OVO will take care of the rest. If you need any more help, we’ll be happy to offer it.

Helpful is a bit of an understatement

Thanks again for your response.

I had incorrectly assumed that having a SMETS1 meter installed by a different energy supplier was essentially the same as having no meter and I would need to have a new SMETS2 capable smart meter installed - boy was I wrong!

I have been with OVO for nearly 2 years and my electricity meter has never communicated with OVO so submitting meter readings is nothing new for me.

Thanks so much for your help!!

Woaah! - hold on there….

@Tedbarnwrote:  “my electricity meter has never communicated with OVO”

There are two different concepts being discussed here. May I please separate them….?

If your “electricity meter” (technically your Communications Hub) has lost connection, then it obviously can’t receive an over-the-air upgrade to the newer SMETS2 software, or then be migrated onto the National Smart Meter Network.

However, if the Comms Hub ceased to send data at the same time as you switched to OVO, then this was due to it remaining on the Wide Area Network owned by the original installer.

So in that latter case, it is the manufacturer, Landis & Gyr, who send the SMETS2 upgrade via the network owned by the old Energy Supplier.

I’m unsure whether that also migrates your site onto the National Smart Meter Network automatically, or whether it is the responsibility of the old Supplier to move it.

Nevertheless, it is then a second/different step for OVO to “acquire” the smart readings. To do so, their in-house Billing System is given the instruction to make that connection via the Data Communications Company (DCC).

You will know that this has occurred because the Billing Software will download your tariff data to the Comms Hub and hence your In Home Device (IHD) will start displaying the correct usage in £s.

So the crunch issue is the first one I mentioned…

Was the loss of your smart data connection coincident with the move to OVO?

Hello Transparent, thanks for your response.

The loss of smart meter connection did coincide with the move from British Gas to OVO.

Thanks for confirming that @Tedbarn 

But we’ll leave my explanation here because it will be of help to others with a similar issue in future. That way the Forum gets progressively turned into a knowledge-base of possible answers for customers to browse.

I’m not 100% we’ve confirmed a solution for this one yet. 

Do we know when BG S1 meters were migrated onto the National Smart Meter Network. It might already be S2. 

As @Transparent mentioned, the loss of comms which coincides with the switch to OVO makes the causes of this unclear. Either way, hold off on booking a meter exchange till we figure this out, @Tedbarn 

Landis & Gyr meters are in the 3rd (Final Operating Capability) tranch.

However that’s been running for several months now. Remember the firmware upgrade by the manufacturer has to occur before the meters get migrated/adopted.

My best guess is that @Tedbarn‘s meter will have received the upgrade.

The unknown factor is whether it subsequently got handed over to the Data Communications Company for adoption. That would need to have been done by the original Energy Supplier, which we assume was BG/Centrica..

I contacted OVO support and asked when my smart meter upgrade is going to happen and received th below response:

"For your meter type the estimated start date for the update is 2021. The update is being carried out by the Data Communications Company (DCC) and they are currently updating meters in batches. When you are due to have your meter updated, you will receive communication from us and then we will let you know when the update is complete"

Is it worth me contacting British Gas?

Welcome back @Tedbarn ,

It’s probably not worth talking to British Gas if you’re no longer with them. If you’re no longer their customer, they’re no longer responsible for your supply and meter, so you’d likely be bounced back to OVO pretty quickly.

My own Aclara SGM1311 was a SMETS1 meter, so it initially lost comms when I switched to OVO back in October, but has since been upgraded to the SMETS2 firmware. It’s nearly ready to connect with OVO in the next couple of weeks or so, once it finishes the adoption process, despite the fact I left before the upgrade even started.

I think as long as your own meter is able to get a signal somehow, it should eventually upgrade and migrate at some point in the future. Based on what OVO has told me, if my own meter fails to connect after the migration process should have completed, they’ll be able to step in and try to resolve it - and a meter exchange would be on the cards as a last resort. Shouldn’t be needed in my case though.

Hopefully you’ll get there at some point too. You’ll definitely receive an email from OVO once your meter is ready to migrate, so please keep an eye on your inbox!

Thanks Blastoise186. I switched to OVO two years ago and hope I will get an email next year regarding meter migration.

That’s really poor wording from OVO, @Tedbarn.

Have a look at the clarifications I wrote about this process yesterday.

It’s not DCC who “do the updates”. The manufacturer is responsible for sending the SMETS2 firmware, which has to occur across the old proprietary network for obvious reasons.

The one aspect of the process which doesn’t seem to be “monitored” or subject to targets is the “adoption” of the meters by DCC. In fact the onus appears to be on the old Energy Supplier to “offer” them for adoption.

I’d be surprised if contacting BG gets you anywhere. After all they no longer have any contract with you.

You could ask OVO to check with the national meter databases, but

• I have no idea if those records have fields to describe a meter’s progress through the migration to full SMETS2 functionality
• I really don’t want thousands of customers contacting Customer Services to find out!

Perhaps @Tim_OVO could ask a generic questions on behalf of all customers with SMETS1 installations, and then tell us here.

Thanks all, great discussion here and we’re narrowing down on a best answer. 

I’m chasing an update on enrollment, and best advice for customers who are waiting. 

I will be back, @Tedbarn, so for now sit tight and have an egg nog 

Thanks Tim. I might have another After Eight rather than an egg Nog

Apologies my dog just walked on my phone and I think he managed to change something?!?!

Hehehe, that’s one smart dog you’ve got there @Tedbarn ! He somehow managed to mark Tim’s last reply as the Best Answer about finding a Best Answer! But somehow, I’m not quite sure it’s the Best Answer you were looking for…

Not to worry though, @Tim_OVO can fix this later by updating the status to unsolved, or re-assigning the Best Answer to something that isn’t picked by an overly energetic dog. 

So sorry and I'm surprised his smelly little paws managed to change anything!

No worries!

I actually have the ability to mark any reply in Question threads as the Best Answer, even if I didn’t start the thread myself - but not the ability to change an already selected Best Answer. It’s proven useful a few times.

The downside is that the Best Answer button appears in the same place as Like does otherwise, so you’ve no idea how many times I’ve nearly hit Best Answer by mistake!

Easy fix though, I just have to delegate the job to a minion called Tim… 

Hahahaha I can’t believe your doggy assigned my reply as the solution. At least SOMEONE appreciated my efforts here 

Great question to ask about the possibility of changing your current Landis+Gyr SMETS1 (S1) meter.

Whilst we do offer an Aclara SMETS2 (S2) meter to members who still have a traditional meter installed, we’re not able to offer this meter replacement if you’ve already got a smart meter installed.

Alll S1 meters have been remotely upgraded to allow them to communicate with all suppliers like a S2 meter, a meter replacement shouldn’t be needed to make sure you’ll be able to get back all those great smart meter benefits soon.

Read more about this process here. In the meantime check out this topic to learn how to read your L+G meter manually and this guide to submitting the meter readings on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS).

Hope this helps!

That time-scale is significantly different to any others I’ve seen… especially for Itron and L&G.

Shouldn’t that start date be “Q3 2020” ?

Just getting these sense checked now, @Transparent - Our friend Ben will be able to confirm before or after any A/L being taken this week 

Hi @Transparent, me again. 

An update on this one, is that I’ve heard that the timeframes are correct in terms of guidance, but are not fixed and actually things are progressing slower then anticipated. 

We would recommend using this only as a guidance:

Thanks @Tim_OVO 

That’s an extremely long delay to the start of upgrading and migrating Landis & Gyr meters.

There are certain to be more of these installed than any other SMETS1 meters because they were deployed by Centrica (British Gas).

The greatly increased timescales for migration will depress the market for innovative add-ons and smart services. After all, lots of the Kaluza product range probably won’t be considered by that section of the population because they’ll assume that the Flex Platform can’t be used on an L&G SMETS1 site sat on top of Centrica’s proprietary WAN.