My gas smart meter needs to be 'commissioned' - What does this mean?

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this issue but in early November I had both gas and electricity smart meteres installed. The engineer was here for 4 hours and eventually reported that he had given up on trying to get the gas meter working. He stated I would need to log another engineer visit to try and resolve the issue….he also stated it was the 3rd gas meter install that had not been succesful that day!

I was fine with logging another visit but I didn’t think it would have to be so painful. I had to convince the OVO team my install was not successful and eventually they arranged a re-visit in December, which is now postponed until late Jan. What I dont understand is why its down to the customer to follow up on a failed installation as  this should all fall under the original installation request as and unfinished  request and not be treated as a new install visit, which is down to the customer to arrange. I hate to think how many other customers have ended up with unfinished installations and have had to covince the OVO team to get an engineer back on-site to complete the install.

I am sure for industry reporting purposes my installation adds to the total smart meter installed stats but bit of a farce when you end up with meters that provide no smart benefits😪

Hey there @M550344 ,

I’m really sorry to hear about your bad experience. I don’t work for OVO myself and as I’m only a forum volunteer, I can’t access your account.

What I can do however, is notify the forum moderators about this thread and ask them to feed it back to internal teams. I admit that this might not help you much, but I’m hopeful that it might help others avoid this issue later.

Please bear with me, this may take a few hours but I’ll make sure they get to see this.

Thanks for your assistance….it just seems a strange install process with no allowance for the supplier to follow up with installation company on failed installations. I also sent a complaint to OVO about my experience to date and waiting on their response.

No worries.

It is a bit strange and I agree with you. Just one question if that’s OK. Do you know if the engineer who did the install was from OVO/SSE directly, or a contractor like SMS or Lowri Beck? This could help to identify possible options.

Just an update for you. I’m currently discussing this thread backstage with the forum moderators. I’ll either have another update for you soon, or the moderators will provide some more information.

Hang in there for now! I’ll be back when I can.

Hi the gas meter buttons are responsive and I can submit readings as required. My original post was to highlight the question as to how failed installations are managed as there appears to be a missing process for these installations where an engineer has not been able to complete the installation and to get an engineer back out to correct the issue, is booked as a new installation?

It’s usually best to flag those to the Support Team. If the engineers report is available, it’ll flag up the failure and the agent you speak to can help you to re-book to finish the job.

Having a similar problem, not with OVO, the gas meter SMETS2 was installed by AES and was never commissioned by the energy provider, with all the hassle I switched to another provider who tell me they do not have the “codes” to perform the commissioning and it will need a new meter install ( this will be the 3rd meter exchange this year) my questions are,  1. who is responsible for the commisssioning, the installer or the energy provider as AES tell me its the energy provider? 2. what are these codes and can a new energy provider undertake the commissioning if the codes are known? 3. who provides said codes, installer or energy provider? 4. my Honeywell gas meter has a menu system with a raft of data held within, are these codes available from the meter?

Hope some or all of this makes sense, it would be great to get some independent advice

The responsibility for commissioning lies with the installing engineer. They use the DCC commissioning app to do so. That app is the ONLY thing capable of commissioning S2 meters and no-one else has access to it.

5 flats fitted with 5 Smart meters fitted to supply cupboard in basement, but no signal coming out - what can be done to boost signal??

Hi @charlesyo ,

I can try to advise on that, but please show us photos of the meters first. Forum Volunteers like myself can’t access your account, so we’ll need those photos to identify your setups.

Thanks!

Hmm… It’s not even commissioned properly…

You’ll need to get an engineer out. Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com for this. That form should sort this out for you.

So iv been at my new property for just over a month and the meters are monthly ones, the gas meter was a standard old one which has now been replaced to a smart one, the electric one is smart but isn't sending readings.  The electrician said it's faulty and needs a new one but it has to be a dual swap out not done separately... ovo don't get what I need and they keep cancelling my appointments or being a  no show I'm still no better off.. are they trying to stop me from going to pay as you go? 

Hi @Lfrancis65 ,

Please post photos of the meters - we can’t provide much advice without them.

Hi @Lfrancis65,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this.

You’d need to contact the Customer Support Team to ask for a dual meter exchange appointment to be booked for both your gas and electricity. There are quite a few reasons that may cause your meter to not send readings, which can often be fixed remotely. Did the engineer say what the fault was with the meter?

As you’ve mentioned that you’ve had some missed appointments you may be eligible for a Guaranteed Standards of Practice (GSOP) payment.

Depending on your meter type, these links may help us figure out what is causing this issue with your electricity meter -

• First generation (S1) Secure smart meter health check (SMHC) Tutorial

• Second generation (S2) Aclara smart meter health check (SMHC) Tutorial

As @Blastoise186 has mentioned we’d be able to give a bit more help if you’d be able to post some pictures of them.

The engineer said it was in dumb mode, decommissioned.  Iv tried talking to customer service on phone and chat  but I explain to them what it is and they get it mixed up along the way, its very frustrating and it stresses me out as I suffer with my mental health and anxiety.  This is my first home on my own and I don't have anyone to help me out as my mother recently passed away. 

The engineer said its not communicating with the hub, so as Iv had a new gas smart meter that communicates fine but as the electric don't they would both need doing the same time 

I’m really sorry to hear this. 

There seems to be two separate meters in this picture, one is a 2nd generation smart meter which may not be commissioned as you’ve mentioned, so operates as a “dumb” meter and the other seems to be a traditional meter. Do both of them supply your address?

If your gas meter is a 2nd generation meter too and communicating, it wouldn’t need to be replaced unless it’s faulty. You may just need to book an appointment for your electricity meter to be commissioned, if this can’t be done then the electricity meter would need replacing.

This link may also help as it gives some more information about the commissioning process in general - 

I’m afraid we don’t have access to accounts here so you’d need to get in touch with Customer Support so that they can rebook this appointment and arrange for your Guaranteed Standards of Practice payment. It may be worth trying to reach the team via webchat where you’d be able to share the advice received from the forum easier.

That 2nd meter in box doesn't belong to me, that's downstairs flat 

I’m really sorry to hear this @Lfrancis65, I’ll ask Forum_Support to reach out. Please keep an eye on your private messages. 

I had electric and gas Smart meters installed over seven weeks ago.
Electric readings go to Ovo fine, but the Gas readings don’t submit.
The IHD 3 has never connected either. L

As the ‘it can take up to six weeks to connect’ period has passed, is there anything I could do myself to have the Gas meter attempt to connect to the HAN? (It’s one with just an ‘A’ and ‘B’ button)

The meters are almost directly opposite each other separated by an outside wall - so very close.
The IHD is 10foot away from the electricity meter so again very close.

Thanks

Bryan 

I assume you’ve checked that the green HAN LED is flashing at the same rate as the WAN one at the top of the meter, about 5 seconds between blips. I would run the n3rgy Homebrew tool to see whether the HAN is working or not: homebrew.n3rgy.com. Post the results here (you might want to obscure the MPAN so no-one who knows how can use it to find out where you live).