Solved

Issues after moving to OVO, Incorrect Smart Meter configuration and Lack of Tariff transperancy

  • 22 November 2023
  • 30 replies
  • 1240 views
A

I was migrated from SSE(Standard Economy 9) to Ovo (Simpler Energy - Economy 7) earlier this year. During migration, I recieved a letter stating 

“We wrote to tell you that we were moving your electricity supply to OVO Energy. Great news! Your move is now complete. With OVO you can expect clean, affordable energy - plus the same great customer service. And you can rest assured that your prices haven't changed as a result of the move, you'll still pay exactly the same.”

However, I just noticed that my Ovo Plan has only 7 hours of Off Peak usage.  The main issue now is that , All my storage heaters are getting Powered ON by the meter, during Peak tariff hours (1 PM to 4PM and 8 PM to 10 PM this was non-peak hours in my previous tariff ), Which is resulting in heavy un-intended consumption and unfair billing.  

Will OVO be able to refund this consumption, as METER was expected to work as per the new OFF Peak timings ?  Am I entitled for a compensation due to their fault in correctly configuring the SMART meters OFF peak supply timings?

P.S : I have a ACLARA- multi rate smart meter. So, it has 2  seperate readings, and the meter turns on the supply to heating appliances during OFF peak hours.

icon

Best answer by Jeffus 22 November 2023, 16:40

View original

30 replies

Jeffus
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +2

Hi @ajay 

I am just a customer like you.

Did you have the smart meter when you were with SSE?

I see ovo have this page on their economy 9 tariff with some timings on. Might be worth comparing to any old documents you have from SSE. 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/electric-heating/economy-9

The timings on the link look similar to the ones you describe.

Certainly OVO should have transferred you with the same tariff you had with SSE, including timings, when you transferred.

It may be with some of the more unusual tariff that issues occurred.

It doesn't sound right you were moved from E9 with SSE to E7 with OVO during the migration. 

The OVO Economy 9  tariff looks like it should work for you.

I suggest call OVO using the phone registered on your account. This should get through to an appropriate team hopefully.

03303035063

If you don't have any luck you could put in a complaint but I suggest try the normal support number first

I think ovo should be able to give you the money back.

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @ajay,

 

Jeffus is right, the best thing to do is contact customer support for this, we don’t have access to your account on the Forum.

 

Please keep us posted with how you get on. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

Like you we were migrated from SSE to OVO, We have now been told that OVO don't offer E10 on a Smart Meter & we should never have been offered it by SSE! It appears that we had a Smart Meter fitted on Economy 10 with SSE in March. When we migrated to OVO in August Economy 10 wasn't a tariff OVO offered But NOBODY TOLD US!! I think so we have been on E7 since.  The local setup still thinks we are on E10 and the heating etc. still boosts for 10 hours per day, but that means 5 hours at expensive heating! The charging pattern on Storage Radiators is still E10 but we have been losing 5 hours of cheap electricity a day!.

There's talk of compensation, well see! Disgraceful! We can't be the only customers affect by this.

 

It explains why it was so difficult to reconcile readings with usage!

My advice would be not accept a Smart Meter until you are certain that E10 is available on it!

P
Rank
Userlevel 2

The OVO Economy 9 tariff looks like it could work for us but in hasn't been offered!

Jeffus
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +2

The OVO Economy 9 tariff looks like it could work for us but in hasn't been offered!

You could try phoning and giving a link to the ovo website.

Tim_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hi @pegem. I’ve replied to the other topic you posted in about this:

 

 

In short, if your smart meter was set up to be eco-10 when you were with your old supplier and you migrated to OVO, you will keep this eco-10 timings for your off peak usage. 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

As far as I know, the local switchings are still on E10 but the Ovo system is now on at best E7 at worst flat rate! My consumption since August was c500kWh peak and c150kWh off-peak! 

P
Rank
Userlevel 2

I have been trying to get readings from OVO, but they keep on saying that they don't do E10 yet! This started with a discrepancy on my IHD & meter. The tariff had been reversed.

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

I have been trying to get readings from OVO,

 

You mean that there are no smart readings showing on your online account pages? Estimates, perhaps? Or no readings at all? Perhaps there are no Usage data either?

Do you know whether your account is set up to receive half-hourly usage data from your meter? We’ve seen several cases where new installations have reverted to a monthly instead of daily or half-hourly frequency. It’s of course best to go for half-hourly, so you can keep a close eye on your consumption.  

If DCC is receiving your data (and I don’t think we’ve heard otherwise), you can always see the half-hourly usage figures by downloading them from one of the third-party aggregators (who of course only get them after you’ve given them permission to do so). It might be worth your while to try this, if you’d like to find out where those enormous usage figures come from. I’ll happily give you a hand if you’d like to try. Do you have a working In-Home Display?

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

The account was showing readings, local timings were E10 but reversed , off-peak tariff 29.?? Per kWh, peak 21.05 p kwh. but OVOs readings are different. The Ovo timings? I really dont know! I think E7? Gone to complains procedure.

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

[It’s not easy to follow your narrative, @pegem, because it’s spread over a number of different threads. I don’t know whether a moderator could combine your posts into a single dedicated thread, but I’ll ask ...]

 

The account was showing readings, local timings were E10 but reversed , off-peak tariff 29.?? Per kWh, peak 21.05 p kwh. but OVOs readings are different.

 

Those numbers tally with the ones I showed you elsewhere for the E10 tariff available in your part of the world (Day 29.25 p/kWh, Night 21.05 p/kWh, standing charge 47.32 p/day). We have also established that the E10 timings are correctly set (TPR: 00374   Timings: All days 0000-0500, 1300-1600, 2000-2200).

So everything is as it should be EXCEPT that the TPRs are set on the wrong meter tiers. This matters because DCC apparently assume that the first tier is for peak usage. I find it difficult to believe that it’s beyond the wit of OVO’s metering team to correct the TPRs as they did with mine; have they said categorically that they can’t?

E10 isn’t supported, they say. Yet here we have an account with an E10 plan (Simpler Energy - Economy 10 - 01/10/2023) and a meter set to switch registers according to an E10 calendar (TPR 374/375). It looks to the layman as if this should be easy to fix, but there are obviously other obstacles that OVO aren’t telling us about. I wish they would.

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

I am not an expert, and I don't want to be! I now know enough to be dangerous! 

That's what I think is wrong;

"So everything is as it should be EXCEPT that the TPRs are set on the wrong meter tiers. This matters because DCC apparently assume that the first tier is for peak usage. I find it difficult to believe that it’s beyond the wit of OVO’s metering team to correct the TPRs as they did with mine;"

"have they said categorically that they can’t?" No but with so many people involved now you would think at least one expert would have picked it up!

BTW, you are the second person to have pointed this out! Surely the so called experts can sort it! As customer's we shouldn't be this involved in the nuts & bolts!

 

P
Rank
Userlevel 2

BTW, you are the second person to have pointed this out! Surely 

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @pegem,

 

I think if you aren’t getting the resolution you need from the support team, you’ve done the right thing in raising a complaint.

 

You can find out more about our complaint procedure on the website.

 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

This is the latest suggestion from OVO for solution to my problem,

"thank you for the images, upon inspection it may be possible for you to get an electrician to install a time switch to put the meter on Economy 10 hours (0000-0500, 1300-1600, 2000-2200). Once done, we can put the time pattern on our end to be on Economy 10 to reflect the hours and hopefully this should work out. Let me know what you think."

Really! Are they serious? 

 

P
Rank
Userlevel 2

Now that my account has been restored I can see that the usage for the last week,when it has been cold!  

has been .

Usage Peak 151

Usage Off-peak 55

Given that at this time of year our usage split should be 80 off-peak 20 peak, clearly the readings have been reversed, and probably have been since the meter was fitted in March! Which is where this whole thing started!

As far as we can tell, Our meter is switching as it should, the storage rads. and immersion heater coming on in line with the E10 schedule. 

So they now are saying that they can apply E10 timings why don't they do it! This would mean that our end and their end match! sort out the tariff reversal and we are sorted! 

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @pegem,

 

I’d advise doing a load test and sending the results to the support team if you believe the peak and off peak meter registers are transposed:

 

How do I tell my day and night readings apart?

Carry out a Load Test​. This involves taking two sets of readings at peak times. Only one reading should change between these times which will be your daytime (peak) register. 

 

Then contact the support team with the following:

 

  • Meter Serial Number: ***********

  • Date you took the meter readings: **/**/**

  • Morning meter readings: 

  • The time you took them: **am

  • The day register ID and reading: R* - *****

  • The night register ID and reading: R* - *****

  • Afternoon or evening meter readings: 

  • The time you took them: **pm.

  • The day register ID and reading: R* - *****

  • The night register ID and reading: R* - *****

  • Do you have an electric heating system (e.g. storage heaters)? Yes/No

 

Register IDs are the little numbers or letters on the left-hand side of the reading (e.g. R1/R2/L/N etc).

We’ll then get back in touch with you to sort it out. 

If you have a smart meter, use the advice here for help taking your readings. And follow the same instructions above to send us the details. 

 

Hope this helps.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
P
Rank
Userlevel 2

I did several load tests over several days. I think whilst locally our system is switching at E10 times, OVOs system has us on E7 times! The storage radiators are coming on for 5 hours at peak rate and only 5 hours off-peak, hence the high peak rate consumption. Ovo have gone very quiet! 

M
Rank
Userlevel 2

I did several load tests over several days. I think whilst locally our system is switching at E10 times, OVOs system has us on E7 times! The storage radiators are coming on for 5 hours at peak rate and only 5 hours off-peak, hence the high peak rate consumption. Ovo have gone very quiet! 


 

 

Jeez, I am dreading when it comes time to replace my Total Heating with Total Control set up!  I no longer trust Ovo to get anything right.  At least 6 different issues with my account in the barely 4 months I have been migrated. I’ve never felt so stressed dealing with any company as this. 

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

I’m afraid all THTC setups will need to be upgraded to Smart within the next year or two. There’s ultimately no escaping the fact that if you don’t do so, your heating and hot water might stop working properly.

Very few suppliers will take on a THTC customer.

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

I too have had this issue. Moved from SSE who replaced a faulty meter and put a smart meter in. Moved over to ovo and still the issue hasn’t been resolved this has been going on for over a year and paying £535 a month with no heating on and still uses over £14/day on average on economy 10. Been through customer services and then onto complaints. Recently had an ovo engineer out to test the meter who then told us it was the heaters at fault even though they are off at the trip switches. Worst energy supplier ever, they are happy to swindle us hard working people out of money to give their bosses huge bonuses. 

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

Moved from SSE who replaced a faulty meter and put a smart meter in. Moved over to ovo and still the issue hasn’t been resolved this has been going on for over a year and paying £535 a month with no heating on and still uses over £14/day on average on economy 10. 

 

Rob, you’re not alone. We’ve seen several cases of ex-SSE customers with smart meters whose Economy 10 systems aren’t working properly. OVO are gradually (but very slowly) learning how to manage these systems, but they’ve yet to identify the magic bullet(s) that will make them all work. Of course, we only hear about ones that aren’t working properly, with no idea of how many are in this situation nor of how many have made the transition flawlessly. Some have discovered that they’re being charged at peak rates for electricity consumed during what they thought were offpeak hours; your high bills might suggest something of the sort.

If you’re interested, there’s plenty of to-and-fro in this thread, where a number of affected customers are sharing their experiences: Are Economy 10 tariffs available yet? | The OVO Forum. 

Every situation is unique, but there are many common factors that indicate systemic mismanagement. 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
R
Rank

Hi firedog 

do you have any idea how we tackle this issue as we have complaint reference numbers. Also had engineers out to look at the problem to no avail 

P
Rank
Userlevel 2

The same problem with us! There are at least three customers who have resorted to Ofgem, read the forum that @Firedog recommended!

R
Rank

The same problem with us! There are at least three customers who have resorted to Ofgem, read the forum that @Firedog recommended!

I’ll get on there and add my name to it. It’s disgusting behaviour from such a large company. It’s not our fault as we all got transferred over to them and they don’t have economy 10  

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings