Is the OVO SMETS1 smart meter compatible with other suppliers?

Hi all, I just want to pass on my annoyance at so called " smart meters" . I look after bills for a friend who is 93, I regularly change suppliers to find a cheaper tariff and he's had 2 different meters fitted because the one that was in was not compatible with the new supplier. Now I have recently changed to a new supplier from ovo and the meters are not compatible, so he will have had his meters changed 3 times in just over 3 years.

Is it really too much to ask to fit a meter that all suppliers use? This is taking up too much of my life, whoever come up with the idea of SMART METERS should be ashamed.

Will the smart meter work if I change suppliers?

Here’s the topic you want, @Brian Scott 

Hi - I recently (summer 2019) had a Smart Meter installed by OVO, who assured me it would contine to work if I changed supplier. My contract came to an end and I moved to edf, as Ovo couldn’t match the deal. The smart meter is sending reading to the new supplier. However, the in-house display just says ‘Waiting for current date’. I’ve switched it off and on again, in the time-honoured fashion, but no joy. ANy ideas? Thanks.

Sorry to hear you’ve switched, @wrongsideof40, I’ve popped your post here as there is some handy info above.

If EDF are able to take readings they may need to re-pair the IHD to get it linked to their system, I’d recommend giving them a call.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for this information. It is useful

Can anyone from OVO or the community assist with my problem below..

I have an OVO electricity pre-payment meter, had it for years - zero balance, just never really got around to changing it as I have a rolling top up online so just left the standing order in place, OVO then changed my account to the BOOST side of their business, the problem is I now cant leave BOOST because my meter isn't compatible with anyone else?

My Gas is with SSE (standard pay quarterly account / DD) who have now been bought out by OVO, so I tried to change my Electricity to them only to be told its not compatible with them either but they're the same company??

So.

SSE cant change my electricity supply to them because my meter isn't compatible.

OVO cant change my supply to them even though my agreement was originally with them as my meter is set to pre-payment

and BOOST don’t offer standard pay quarterly / DD 

so here I am trapped paying what ever BOOST would like to charge me with no apparent escape!

can someone please offer any advise on breaking this loop of hell

thanks

Good evening @The Dazzler ,

I’m really sorry this is causing you so much trouble, so I’m going to flag this up with @Tim_OVO immediately. There probably is a way to switch everything over to OVO if it’s done in the right way, but I’ll check with Tim and get back to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, could you take some photos of your meters and post them in your next reply please?

Here you go Blastoise186… thank you for taking the time to reply

🤦🏻‍♂️

Thanks @The Dazzler ,

I see what the reason would be. The meter you have is a SMETS1 that isn’t compatible with all suppliers. Only those which fitted SMETS1 meters back in the day would be compatible with yours - OVO and Boost being two examples of this.

I’ve just sent up an SOS Flare a few seconds ago to get help from Tim and his internal contacts. It might take a little while, but I will make sure to keep you posted when I hear back.

@Blastoise186 really really appreciate that.. thank you very much.

so it sounds like OVO is compatible but they told me they couldn't help me when I called?

lets see what Tim comes back with and we can build from there.. thanks again.

No worries :)

I don’t think you’re the only person who’s wanted to switch between the two sides, so there probably is a way to do it. I know that if you wanted to switch from a Pay Monthly/Credit tariff elsewhere to Boost PAYG, you’d have to switch to PAYG with the existing supplier first and then switch to Boost.

But I get the feeling that there’s probably a magic trick for internal transfers between Boost and OVO. I keep in touch with Tim constantly and he’s able to more quickly access internal teams than most of the support teams can. I can’t promise that the result will be a thumbs up, but we’ll definitely give you an honest answer.

As this community forum is open to anyone (even if you’re not an OVO customer), we’re able to give you advice on what you can do even if you can’t switch to OVO. Bear with me and I’ll aim to update you by this time tomorrow.

I’ve just done some reading up in the background, while I wait for Tim to respond in the morning.

As far as I’m aware, when you’re on PAYG with a smart meter and switch supplier, the old supplier generally flips the meter into Credit Mode during the process before handing over control and the new supplier flips it back later. This is done to ensure you don’t run out of credit mid-transfer and be left unable to top-up and go off supply. You would have to pay back any charges later, but it’s a feature that’s possible.

So I’m sort-of wondering whether it might be possible for Boost and OVO to do a bit of a hack here - flip the meter into Credit Mode and leave keep it there in order to initiate a switch?

Thant sounds really positive! lets hope Tim confirms that.. thanks again

Hi there @The Dazzler ,

Tim got back to me earlier and gave me an update. I’m really sorry for the delay! I do have some bad news for you, but I do also have some good news too.

You might be able to transfer your electricity from Boost to OVO and then get your gas moved over from SSE to OVO as well. However, it’s a complicated switch and may take a bit of working out. Here’s the full info @Tim_OVO gave me:

Boost to OVO: this is still being worked out as a main process. There are occasions where we want to do it, and a manual long winded process is worth it. For example if someone is high risk, with electricity dependency for example, then we would deem that prepayment is not suitable.

However in most cases, the OVO sign up needs doing due to different elements, such as a credit check. We can't allow every Boost customer the option of switching straight to OVO, as some customers are on this payment method because they've been unable to keep out of debt on a credit system before. So we do a credit check with every OVO sign up.

This might seem harsh, but actually someone that goes into debt, and doesn't clear it costs the business huge amounts of money, and increases in these customers would ultimately lead to higher prices for everyone. So we would recommend a prepayment system (boost) for those who might struggle with a large monthly payment, and suggest they sign up to OVO directly if they feel they would prefer this system.

Energy is an essential service. That's why lots of benefits and initiative such as the warm home discount are in place to ensure energy usage is paid for before other things. Prepayment energy just makes this even easier.

I'll pick up that topic and see what's what today.

I believe Tim is still working out some details behind the scenes, but you might be able to get this switch to work out. Are you OK with hanging in there for a bit longer for Tim to catch up properly? Sorry it’s not (quite) a perfect result for you yet, but I hope this helps you out a bit.

that's great news!! what he explains seems totally logical, they're not a charity after all. 

randomly yesterday I received a text message from E.ON saying they are installing smart meters in my area and sent me  a contact number should I wish to upgrade… seriously considering it as at least that way I will have the SMETS2 meter all the suppliers want you to have.

I’ll wait for Tim though as I believe OVO are quite competitive.

thanks again. very informative!

No worries :)

I’d also recommend being very careful about text messages you receive randomly out of the blue like that. There’s usually something dodgy behind it and no-one should be sending you marketing messages if you’ve not granted consent either.

All SMETS1 meters will eventually be upgraded to run on SMETS2 firmware, which will unlock most of the features you can enjoy with the newer SMETS2 meters, such as being able to change supplier and retain all the smart functionality. But it takes a while to get that all done. I can confirm that the one you have will definitely be getting that firmware upgrade eventually if it hasn’t already done so.

I think the switch from Boost to OVO in your case might have to be done manually and going in via the website probably won’t work. But no doubt we’ll find out soon.

If you need anything else, definitely let us know!

Hi @The Dazzler and thanks for all of that info you shared with our pro problem blaster.

As @Blastoise186 mentioned it is a Secure Liberty S1 meter. That will be upgraded to the DCC and will be compatible with all suppliers at some point before September 2021. In the meantime, these are the suppliers it’s also compatible with, last time we heard:

Utilita Energy Limited
Co-operative Energy Ltd
First Utility Ltd
Electricity Plus Supply Ltd t/a The Utility Warehouse
E (Gas & Electricity)
Spark Energy Supply Limited
Eversmart Energy Ltd
EON Energy
Robin Hood Energy Limited
Ecotricity
Bristol Energy
Our Power Energy Supply Ltd
Octopus Energy

As the sign up process is different for OVO (I know you were once with OVO, but that was when prepayment was part of the OVO offer, now it’s Boost), your best bet is to sign up to OVO having switched to another supplier listed above. However it’s worth getting this advice checked with our Support team first, as blaster mentioned. Do this here.  

Hi Tim. I followed the company links you sent me above and decided Octopus would be the best for us as they seem to have the best ratings on comparison websites.. however, this is what their website says… 

“If you currently have a prepayment meter and would like to switch to us and pay by Direct Debit, you need to ask existing supplier to switch your prepayment meter for a credit meter before you can move over.”

if you have to do that then why cant you just switch it and let me remain? this make no sense what so ever!?

Hi @The Dazzler ,

It sounds like you’ll get stuck there because similar to OVO, Octopus only does Pay Monthly/Credit tariffs and Boost only does Pay As You Go. Switching between the two types at the same time as switching supplier isn’t something that can be done easily.

I did have a chat with @Tim_OVO about this sort of situation recently and I think he’s chasing up some workarounds internally.

In the meantime, the best solution I can recommend would be to temporarily switch to a supplier capable of doing Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go tariffs while staying in PAYG mode, then switch to a Pay Monthly tariff with that supplier on a Standard Variable tariff, which should then unlock the freedom to go with any supplier who offers Pay Monthly tariffs that you fancy - provided you keep within the suppliers in Tims list for now.

I can understand that it’s not ideal, but once you’ve switched over to Pay Monthly, you shouldn’t have the same problem again.

thanks for the reply @Blastoise186 as you can see this is becoming extremely frustrating.

and to top it all off BOOST have decided that their new app will no longer allow rolling top ups!!… who in their right mind thought that was a good idea… absolutely appalling!