My electricity meter reading has not changed from a month ago.

Hi @ChrisG ,

Could you take some snaps and post them for us? Makes it easier to see what you’re seeing. :)

Not a great picture but the best I can do.  The meter reading is 20889, the same as last time I looked a month ago.  Above and to the left is a capital “A” instead of IMPRT which I think it should read.  What does “A” signify?

Thanks.

Hmmm…

Does it respond at all if you press any buttons? If not, I’d say it’s a dead/bricked unit that’ll need to be replaced.

It’s not completely dead.  Left alone the display cycles through 3 screens: (1) the meter reading that used to be titled IMPRT. (2) another reading that used to be titled EXPRT (always zero as we don’t have solar panels) and (3) a cash value. I cant remember what that was called before, “paid” or “bill” or something like that.  Now all three readings are just titled “A”.

There are two buttons on the lower right of the meter.  Using the right one (labelled ok) makes the display cycle through “MESSAGE” → “BILLING” → “SECURITY” → “INFO”. I don’t understand the significance of these.  

I really want to know what “A” signifies.  

I’m afraid I can’t tell you what the A means unfortunately. So far, I’ve not been able to locate a manual for that model.

It sounds like there could be a fault. Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com .

:(

Thanks anyway Blastoise.  

The manual explains what the menu items mean. It’s available here: EDMI_ES10A_Smart_Meter_Manual.pdf (smartme.co.uk) 

I couldn’t find anything in it about your mysterious ‘A’, though.

Not that it helps necessarily but having enhanced the image, I think the top left indicator might be an ‘R’ rather than an ‘A’ 

That could mean that the display is somehow stuck in a particular menu screen. 
It’s definitely showing a reading of some sort as the kWh graphic is showing

Just looking further at the manual for the meter, the push buttons are not just ‘push’ .. they also navigate through a menu structure. 

Hey @ChrisG 

Did you manage to get to the bottom of this issue? And is the meter reading still the same?

If it’s still stuck on the same reading, it’ll be worth taking Blastoise186’s advice and having the team check if there are any issues with the meter and what they can do, check that out here: https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com/

I have not got to the bottom of this.  The meter reading is still the same. 

I sent a message to help@ovoenergy .com about this and about the smart meter problems we are having generally.  I got the standard response  “It looks like we may not be in communication with your meters…..  To help us determine the cause of this issue please could you perform the checks below: “  I say standard response  (I touched on this in my first post on this thread).  I have been here before, in January.  It took until May before the engineer came to fix the smart meter and it seems it still isn’t fixed.   At the end of June and July I submitted meter readings (for both electricity and gas) on the telephone and was resigned to this being the solution going forward.  Then on the 1st  of September I took the readings and found that the electricity meter had not changed from the value on the 31st July. 

When I sent the messageto hel@ovoenergy.com  I wrote “ The issue that bothers me most is that the electricity meter is not showing the up to date IMPRT value.”  Despite this the reply I got failed to reference the meter reading not changing.  I am less than happy.

I will now try the link you gave me.

Thanks for your reply.

I tried the link.  It didn’t help.

@ChrisG , looking at another forum it sounds like your ‘frozen’ display issue is being seen by others with the same meter. I also understand that your model cannot be updated (there has been an update process for older S1 smartmeters) and therefore probably should be replaced. I have no info where OVO are in this process. 

Hi Everybody,

I am having the same issue, my electricity meter has been stuck for the last two months. Before that it showed “IMPRT” on top and the current reading in the middle, but now it shows “A” on top and the same reading in the middle (see picture). My energy supplier is EDF, I made them aware of the issue two months ago, but they haven’t taken any action. It should be in the supplier’s interest to fix a faulty meter ASAP, but it appears they don’t bother. I received a letter a few days ago, which contains the following worrying sentence: ”Your meter is still recording your consumption correctly, we just can’t receive reads automatically.” Then I asked them how can they be so sure that the meter is correctly storing data, but they didn't reply. I don’t want to jump to negative conclusions, but I was wondering if this is a diffused practice among energy suppliers…

At this point what they should be doing is either attempting a remote fix themselves, or getting DCC on the case to dig deeper. OVO has a tool for this which you can run yourself via self-service, but unfortunately it only works if you’re currently supplied by OVO.

The meter keeps up to one year of billing/meter reading data stored locally - even if Comms get dropped, the local records are never affected.

@Blastoise186  Thank you for your reply! Can you tell me more about this tool please? Do you have any pictures of it? Maybe EDF have a similar tool and I could ask them to send it to me. 

Sure thing. It’s over at https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com .

You can’t use it if you’re not an OVO customer, but I can get you past that. Here’s a few screenshots of the early stages.

The tool walks you through some of the basic questions of a Smart Meter Healthcheck, runs a few diagnostics and then makes a decision on what to do - including automatic report submission to the Smart Support Team if needs be.

@Blastoise186 I thought you meant a physical tool, a device. My question is: if data is still stored locally, how can it be accessed? How can I be sure that only the display is stuck? Perhaps stored data (if any) is not reliable..

There is only one way to access it locally, which is via the Optical Port on the front. There are programmer devices which exist for that purpose. However, in the UK the Optical Port is disabled in the field for security reasons and can’t be used at all once the meter leaves the factory. It can be re-enabled when returned to a service centre, but otherwise does nothing.

Other than that, it has to be done remotely.

The meter has checks to detect and resolve critical errors. You’d be able to tell pretty quickly if the entire unit failed.

@Blastoise186 Thank you for your prompt replies, you’re very knowledgeable! I may be wrong, but I believe that the purpose of a meter is to allow both the supplier and the consumer to monitor the electricity usage. Once the meter is removed and accessed on a bench, it can be read by the supplier only, the consumer loses any control. Where is the transparency? Is that even legal?

Thanks! :)

A certain OVO Engineer that we know well on the forum taught me a few things, but otherwise it’s just a TON of research that I do in the background.

It’d only be accessed on a bench for three reasons, during manufacturing for testing purposes, if it’s returned to a service centre for repairs, or if it’s sent off for some kind of accuracy check after a fault. All three of those cases are done away from the field where it won’t affect a customer. And usually, you’re done with the meter by the time it comes off of your wall anyway.

@Blastoise186 I understand that, but my question is: how reliable are the readings taken out a faulty meter? I just hope EDF won’t bill me a crazy amount based on readings taken out a faulty meter. The fact that I reported the issue 2 months ago and they never acted makes me feel a bit suspicious… 

If it’s just a Comms drop, then the reliability of the readings themselves should be fine, as long as you pull them off of the meter display itself.

If the entire meter has screwed up, there’s ways of detecting that.