I’m afraid that if you have no WAN coverage then there will be absolutely nothing SSE can do. DCC aren’t going to invest in improvements to the northern region radio network now that they have met their contractual coverage. 

What is happening though is a slow move towards rollout of meters (or more accurately comms hubs) for the northern region that can communicate either via the bespoke Arqiva radio network or 4G cellular networks. They are also investigating sending data over home WiFi.

I am in this situation too but luckily for me I don’t have electric heating. Unfortunately for you and many others if either of those solutions are not rolled out before the RTS switch off then you could be stuck.

I’ve not yet seen any explanation of why the new meters can’t be pre-programmed before installation with an appropriate tariff switching schedule for RTS customers. This would mean they could be installed without the need for a WAN connection but still serve their primary purpose of metering/switching, and if in the future they can be connected then all the better. This whole business of having to be configured over WAN after commissioning seems backwards.

I’m glad someone else thinks that too.  Surely it would make sense when the customer books a smart meter fitting and states what tariff they want to just fit a preprogrammed meter instead of all this malarkey.  It might mean an engineer’s visit if they ever wanted to change tariff I suppose but not something that you would do regularly anyway.

I agree that this would be ideal for those who are fairly sure that comms will be difficult. I honestly don’t know how much ‘pre-programming’ it’s possible to do: I imagine that an engineer is dispatched with a number of meters and comms hubs in his van. The meters will have some basic standard configuration, whether that’s from the factory or an OVO workshop or a combination of both. I don’t think they are necessarily earmarked for specific customers.

I have read that where the meters are intended for THTC customers, they are configured with the appropriate Economy 7 Time of Use (ToU) settings for the region, to be changed if necessary ‘over the air’ (OTA) to the ones the customer has signed up for on installation. 

Configuring the timings of the auxiliary load control switch that turns power to the dedicated offpeak circuit on and off is a separate process. I just don’t know whether it’s possible to do this off site.

We saw somewhere that the engineer installing a meter in these circumstances did indeed manage to do some configuration off site. I’m imagining a situation where two customers in the same village are to have their new meters installed on the same day. They’re at opposite ends of the village; the first has a strong LRR connection while the second doesn’t. So long as they have both opted for, say, Economy 10, might it be possible to set up both meters at the first site, so the second can indeed get a ‘pre-programmed’ meter?   

Let’s see if we can get an answer to these questions from someone who should know: @Lukepeniket_OVO

Hi @Mo59,

I can see Firedog has already given a good response here.

I’m also currently asking about this internally and will let you know once I get a response.

Just a minor update on my situation:

The engineer managed to get “Stages 1 and 2” completed successfully. “Stage 3” wasn’t successful (waited around an hour but didn’t complete). Don’t know if Stages 1 and 2 need a signal or if it suggests the signal just wasn’t strong enough for Stage 3. No idea what the set-up Stages are. If I remember correctly, the engineer said that Stage 3 was where most of the data was downloaded.

Also, the engineer only tried with one meter. Any others that might have been in his van stayed in his van.

It is now 6 weeks since my RDS meter was replaced and my contract changed from THTC to Economy 10. As advised by various folk on the forum, I have waited the industry ‘standard’ 6 weeks for the meter to be fully functional.

The meter and the IHD are performing as expected - IHD showing Economy 10 tariff is in force, correct meter readings being sent to my account - but off peak power is still being delivered at Economy 7 times.

I contacted OVO’s chat line today. The operator’s action was to contact the meter team to have my contract amended. I queried that because I do not want the contract changed, I just want an Economy 10 service. She replied, ‘ I can understand that however to be able to fix this we need to remove the contract and resubmit it then your off peak times will be correct’; and confirmed the times would change to Economy 10. She said it would take 5 days.

Does that make sense to anyone? 

That’s exactly what I have had since the 8th of July,all bills have been estimated and totally at peak rate dnd they are coming to put an old type meter back in on the 25th of November,panorama was a interesting watch last night.

@Codeye Sorry to hear, sounds like you are worse off than me. At least my meter is sending off peak and peak readings to my account but I think they are based on Economy 7 times. Best of luck sorting it out. I started this thread more than a month ago and I still have to get a clear picture of what the process should be.

I take readings from my IHD which is set to Economy 10 tariff. I can see the rates changing in accordance with Economy 10 times. When I eventually get a bill I will try and reconcile with the actual meter readings being sent to my account.

@Firedog writes: Configuring the timings of the auxiliary load control switch that turns power to the dedicated offpeak circuit on and off is a separate process. I just don’t know whether it’s possible to do this off site.

That is helpful. On taking a closer look, I can just about reconcile the £ amounts displayed in my IHD with the meter readings being sent to my account, suggesting all recorded readings are in accordance with Economy10. (Note that the IHD is changing the £ rate in line with Economy10 times.)

Off Peak power is being delivered at Economy7 times. My previous post earlier today records that the online chat advised that meter team need to ‘change my contract’ to deliver off peak power at Economy10 times. I am not confident that will fix it.

I’m afraid you took my words out of context. Configuring the ALCS is done remotely, as far as I’m aware. This requires that the meter is in contact with the mothership, so it isn’t possible to change the configuration in a no-WAN situation. ‘Off-site’ here meant ‘somewhere other than where the meter is to be installed’.
  

There is of course no need to change your contract, assuming that your plan clearly shows that it’s an Economy 10 tariff. What has to change is the ALCS configuration, and Support should be able to get that done, if they can’t actually do it themselves (which I’ve occasionally heard that they can, to my horror). 

I’d suggest that you watch the meter like a hawk at the time when the tariff changes. It should happen a few minutes after the advertised times, so that delay - how many minutes - is what you want to find out. Then, when you ask (again!) for the ECAUL request to be sent to configure your ALCS, ask if it’s possible to change the offpeak times to a couple of minutes after the times you noted and the peak times to a couple of minutes before.

I’ve just skimmed through the whole of this thread, but I couldn’t see anywhere what offpeak times you think you should be getting. They vary a lot from place to place, so I can’t just look them up without knowing where you live.  I may have asked before, but I couldn’t spot it in my lightning review - if you have told me and I forgot, sorry!

One common set of timings is:

• 4:30am - 7:30am, 1:30pm - 4:30pm, 8:30pm - 12:30am (GMT) 
  (these are for the Northern Scotland region, otherwise referred to as Scottish Hydro, region 17 or P depending on where you look)

For example, if you note that the tariff changes at 13:35, your meter has a built-in delay of 5 minutes. You could ask for the ALCS to be set to switch at:

• 4:40am - 7:30am, 1:40pm - 4:30pm, 8:40pm - 12:30am (GMT)

OK, you’d lose a few minutes of available offpeak time on the switched circuit, but you’d be more certain that you won’t be using power-hungry appliances at peak rates by mistake. You’ll be careful, of course, not to switch the oven on before 8:35pm if you’re penny-pinching.

Please come back and tell us whether you were able to get this done.

Thank you ​@Firedog.

I am in region 17 and those are my off peak times according to my IHD. I presume the IHD gets them from the meter. When I calculate my likely bill using my tariff and the meter readings on my on-line account (it has been receiving readings since 5th October) I can just about reconcile the figure with what the IHD says. So all of that side seems OK.

I will wait the 5 days to see if the contract amendment/re-submittal prompts the ECAUL request. The operator I chatted to seemed convinced her action would do the trick. I don’t want to push the issue yet because the last time I did that an operator virtually hung up on the chat.

The relevant extract from my last chat is below.

• 2 Nov 2024 3:33:06 PM - Agent: Hi there, my name is Victoria. Thank you so much for contacting us on webchat. Just so you know, it may take a little while for me to answer your queries, however I will always respond. How can I help you today?
• 12 Nov 2024 3:35:10 PM - Customer: A smart meter was installed on 1st October. it was a THTC replacement and I signed up for economy 10. The off peak service is being provided overnight at Economy 7 times only.
• 12 Nov 2024 3:36:05 PM - Agent: Thank you for providing me with this information, please allow me a moment to look into this for you
• 12 Nov 2024 3:39:49 PM - Agent: Thank you for your patience there, what I am doing right now is getting this raised to the meter team so they can amend your contract and have you on the correct times for your off peak timings
• 12 Nov 2024 3:42:10 PM - Customer: I don't need the contract amended. I need the Economy10 service we agreed to.
• 12 Nov 2024 3:43:27 PM - Agent: I can understand that however to be able to fix this we need to remove the contract and resubmit it then your off peak times will be correct
• 12 Nov 2024 3:44:04 PM - Customer: as per Economy10?
• 12 Nov 2024 3:44:26 PM - Agent: yes thats correct
• 12 Nov 2024 3:45:04 PM - Customer: OK, do you have a timescale for this, please?
• 12 Nov 2024 3:46:14 PM - Agent: I have got this raised now and the time frame for this is within 5 days. Your case number is 25843066

That’s very interesting, and it may well be correct that this is the way it’s done. I wonder. 

Since you now have a case no., you can quote it each time you have to contact Support. This should avoid the sort of situation we saw yesterday - the customer is quoting from a conversation with support: “I have just called to confirm your appointment for 6.30 today and been told there is no details of my call or appointment”. 

Hi - new to the forum :)

We live in sunny perthshire and had a ‘smart’ meter fitted just over 6 weeks ago.

We were very lucky and it was installed by an experienced operator detached from ‘down south’.

Our meter seemed to be working ok right from the start,we did have a small problem with the IHD but managed to sort that.

Our only problem was that we appeared to be on economy 7 ‘times’ but fortunately my OH had seen online about the 6 week delay so we were fairly relaxed about that.

Anyway she contacted OVO recently to ask about why we were not on e10 ‘times’,the Lady she spoke to said she would contact somebody about it (he was out of the office),but he must have picked up the message anyway as the ‘Heater signal light’ lit up whilst she was still on the phone with the OVO Lady :)

So I guess it might at least partly depend on who you speak to at OVO,as I said earlier we were very lucky with our meter installer but some of our neighbours have had problems probably caused by inexperience/lack of skills.

Hey, thanks for letting us know ​@maxaret !

I’ll make sure this gets fed back to the teams - no doubt there’s a few who’ll be happy to hear this. :)

But yeah, reconfiguring the Meter can be a fairly quick task if everything is working correctly - in some cases it’s a simple matter of a few mouse clicks.

For ​@Blastoise186 and ​@Firedog 

Good news from ​@maxaret above but not so good  news from me (also in sunny Perthshire).

(Can you tell me the dates when your meter was installed ​@maxaret and when the Economy 10 off peak started, please?)

To recap, I have moved from THTC to Economy 10 and my meter was installed on 1st October. Off peak power is still being supplied at Economy 7 times. My online chat last week (see above) prompted the operator to resubmit my contract to correct the off peak times. I was told that the timescale for this request was up to 5 days.

5 days later my off peak supply times have not changed. I was told today that last week’s request was for a change to my ‘profile class’ and it would take up to 15 working days; that will  take us up to 3rd December. You can read the relevant extract from the chat below.

Because I have been given so much misleading/conflicting information from OVO, I also tried phoning today. I was told that nothing could be done to speed things up.

If anyone from OVO is monitoring this, can someone explain why my installation is taking so long and convince me the current action will resolve the problem?

I will now switch on my storage heaters and let them charge overnight at the 24 hour rate (it might be sunny Perthshire but it is freezing). Fortunately affordability is not a problem for us, and I can use other heating in the evening when the storage heaters are discharged. That might not be the case for other customers who were foolish enough to take OVO’s advice and apply for meter replacement as early as possible.

• 19 Nov 2024 12:44:08 PM - Customer: I would like an update on case number 25843066, please.
• 19 Nov 2024 12:45:26 PM - Agent: No worries. Bear with me a moment, please
• 19 Nov 2024 12:50:05 PM - Agent: Hi  thanks for your patience. The case is currently being worked on. The timeframe for this update is 15 working days. So, this should've been updated within the timeframe. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
• 19 Nov 2024 12:50:41 PM - Customer: I was told during last week's chat the timeframe was 5 days.
• 19 Nov 2024 12:52:06 PM - Agent: I'm sorry about that. The agent maybe referring to when the case maybe worked on
• 19 Nov 2024 12:52:53 PM - Agent: The case is currently worked on, but it takes up 15 working days for it to be updated
• 19 Nov 2024 12:54:20 PM - Customer: One last thing, can you tell me, please, exactly what action is requested in the case documentation.
• 19 Nov 2024 12:56:05 PM - Agent: Your off peak time is on economy 7, instead of 10, your profile class needed to be changed/amended correctly
• 19 Nov 2024 12:56:32 PM - Customer: Thank you.
• 19 Nov 2024 12:56:53 PM - Agent: No worries. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Does anyone else find it annoying when a help desk operator says, ‘no worries’?!

I think you’ll need to probably just wait a bit longer - these things are reliant on a third-party beyond OVO’s control… One that doesn’t exactly know how to be speedy either...

​@Keast 

Hi Keast

Sorry to hear you have still got problems,our smart meter was installed on 1st October and we were happy with the installation except that we were only getting economy7 times/signal (we are also refugees from THTC).

My OH sent an email into OVO last friday (15th nov) to check we were actually on economy10 and OVO called us back,my OH mentioned to the Lady at OVO that we appeared to be on economy7 and we were switched to economy10 whilst she was still on the phone (it was during the afternoon signal time so very obvious when one of the lights came on) but we were surprised to get it sorted so quickly.

Hope you get yours sorted soon - as you say it is bloody cold in Perthshire at the moment :(

I was just going to add that the only reason we had the smart meter installed was because our housing ass/OVO fitted solar panels some months ago - our old meter was still working perfectly but unfortunately whilst the solar panels were working - our old meter was running backwards :)

Just to finish off - our storage heaters are not coping with this weather and soon run out of heat - what a useless idea they are in scotland LOL,good job we have our oil filled radiator as well.

​@Blastoise186 Thanks for that information.

If that would be OVO’s response it is unsatisfactory on so many levels I would not know where to start.

A suggestion: OVO publishes the process they are following to move customers from THTC to Economy 10. That would inform customers what to expect, and would put them, Help Desk agents and contributors to this forum on the same page. I understand there may be differences in the detail (location for example) but the same steps are surely followed for each customer. Any interfaces with outside agencies could be documented with target response times. 

I started this thread having been told by an OVO staff member that moving from Economy 7 to Economy 10 would require a site visit (that is why I decided not to try Economy 7) and currently I am waiting for on-line action before 3rd December (2 months later) to do exactly that. No mention was made of any industry standard 6 week wait either at that point. My experience so far suggests the process the process is being developed on the fly. A published process would give me confidence that everyone in OVO knew what they were doing.

​@maxaret Many thanks for that information. I agree storage heaters are not enough without backup heating, and they are expensive. My thinking is that the modern heaters are much better at retaining their heat (we have Dimplex Quantum): THTC/Economy 10 is a good option, especially because the afternoon charge tops up the heaters for that early evening period when OP rates are not available. We have used storage heaters for 40 years, we are on our third generation of heaters. Almost every year I considered moving to gas heating but was put off by the disruption and capital cost. I console myself now by telling my gas powered neighbours that we are greener.

I’m not sure how much of that can be published I’m afraid. The rules are strict about not leaking secrets - I’d have to ask before I even considered writing up something like that.

​@Emmanuelle_OVO I asked ​@Blastoise186 above if an outline process document could be published showing the steps involved in moving to Economy 10 from an old RDS meter.

That would help me and maybe other users understand why we are stuck on Economy 7 after a meter replacement. My meter was replaced on 1st October and I have now been told I will be on Economy 7 off peak supply until 3rd December. 

Is there any reason why customers cannot be provided with that information to help with decision making on how to heat their houses?

Wonder why some are having problems while others seem to work as intended?  Is it down to the meter engineer or what?

Yet another Perthshire resident here, and I seem to be one of the lucky ones where it was installed and started working on correct Economy 10 times immediately.

Hey ​@Keast 

This was the latest update we have internally. If we get any further updates we will update all our related forum topics:

 

Update on RTS shutdown:

As part of the RTS Project development, we are really happy to share with you our progress:

As you may be aware, the RTS signal that instructs some of our meters when to move to the “Off Peak Period”  will be closing down soon and we need to arrange for all of our RTS customers to have a meter exchange so they don’t lose any of their meter functionality.

The RTS signal will end for our customers on 30 June 2025. The period between 1 July - 30 September 2025 will then be used to close-down the RTS signal and allow us to manage any unexpected customers impacted.

After a very successful pilot, from the 17th June 2024 we will begin writing to our Economy 10 RTS customers to invite them to call us to arrange for their meter exchange. 

We are continuing to work at pace to enable the same solution for the majority of our other RTS customers and our aim is to begin writing to these customers in Aug 2024. 

We will continue to update you on our progress.