My Landis+Gyr E470 smart meter isn't communicating following my switch - What can I do?

Hi @Bar58 - sorry to hear this, but thanks for raising the issue here on the Forum.

Since we’re fellow customers we don’t have your background details. But please fill out your Forum Profile page because that’s where we’d look.

The first things I’d like to check is the type of Smart Meter you had installed by Co-op, and the approximate date you joined OVO.

Can you also tell us who manufactured your meter, or the installation date?

Better still, post a photo of it here if you can!

Once I have that information I’ll be in a better position to find a way forward. Don’t assume that all you read online is still true. The Smart Meter technology is moving forward, and we’ve just entered a time-frame when many of the earlier meters are being upgraded. That work started on 28th July, and will achieve universal transferability between all Energy Suppliers.

Well now it’s my turn to have doubts. If your gas meter is SMETS2, then your electricity meter must also be. The electricity meter contains the Communications Hub which links everything together on your site.

The version of the software running inside the meters has nothing to do with the manufacturer. However, it is sometimes the case that a particular meter was only ever supplied with SMETS1 software. So that’s what I was hoping when I first asked you for the manufacturer. In this case it didn’t help because Landis & Gyr have supplied electric and gas meters with both SMETS1 and SMETS2 software, and on all possible networks!

So the reason I concluded that your electricity meter must be SMETS1 was on the balance of probabilities that this was the reason it could be sent commands by OVO.

Yes, you need to get in contact with Customer Services. They should be able to check the status of your meters and take it from there.

I don’t think you’ll need meters changed at all. Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like everything can be sorted remotely, either be sending commands or else by scheduling a software upgrade.

Two other points:

1: Your medical background may facilitate you being on the Priority Services Register. This has a number of benefits, including the fact that you would get priority if it transpires that a site visit is required after all. The PSR is a nationwide service, and also used by your local Distribution Network Operator (Western Power) if there is an interruption to the electricity supply, whether planned or unplanned.

2: There isn’t sufficient information on the Forum Profile page to identify you for marketing purposes, so you don’t have to worry about that. But I did use it to find out that you were in a region served by Western Power, and also to confirm that your Smart Meters will be connected to the Wide Area Network operated by Telefonica. That simply helps me to tailor my answers for you.

Thanks folks

Been in touch with customer services, excellent it was too. Getting a new IHD and they are forwarding information for my owncown health check.   My meter is a SMETS2.

Let you know how it goes.

Kind regards

Ovo have voluntarily paid Ofgem £1.2 million to avoid costly fines for failing to meet Smart2 rollout for the last 2 years. 

No wonder they are not addressing my problem,!!!

Just noted what you wote @Bar58 :

Will write to MD, MP and Ofgem…

OVO Energy has a CEO, rather than an MD. But any such correspondence would be passed back to Customer Services Complaints Dept. So that strategy relies on whether you implemented the published Complaints Procedure.

Your MP will be able to make enquiries and take action if the regulations supported by Parliamentary legislation have failed to provide for correct action to be taken. You will need to show that there is some failure in the implementation of the regulations.

An appeal to Ofgem will get you nowhere because they are the industry regulator. They cannot, and do not, address issues originating from end-users.

You might possibly have recourse to the Office of the Energy Ombudsman, but that route can only be opened if you have exhausted the approved Complaints Procedure and have reached a technical state of “deadlock”. We don’t have enough information from what you’ve written to know if that is the case.

Ok...spoke to CS, there is an update from the smart team re my dumb meter. Thank you Holly in customer services I spoke to last week, a star ⭐ The information I gave as a result of my  health check shows that the number on the gas meter is different to the one they would expect, apart from that it showed no other reason for the non communication. It has now been forwarded to the next level of the team who think they may be able to do something remotely, like an update or reboot. Now waiting for an email from CS (save me from holding) for a solution. Failing this it will be an engineer's visit. Yes I am still on the priority list, the call from WP is a mystery. Keep you posted, assuming you are still interested.

Yes, we’re still interested in knowing progress on this situation @Bar58 

The definition of what constitutes a SMETS2 site is about to become complicated due to all SMETS1 meters being upgraded to SMETS2 functionality.

Those upgraded meters will then be migrated to the National Smart Meter Network, operated by the Data Communications Company (DCC).

If the SMETS1 was a Liberty (manufactured by Secure) and installed by OVO themselves, then the Moderators will be better able to track this progress. After both operations are completed, the site effectively becomes a “Liberty SMETS2”.

However, the situation still needs us to get some clarity regarding the upgrades and migration for customers having joined OVO with existing Smart Meters, such as yourself. @Tim_OVO and I have been discussing how to handle this during the past fortnight. We want to make sure that the information we put out on the Forum is both accurate and clear. Confusing end-users here would be disastrous because it would increase the numbers requiring assistance from Customer Services. That’s an expensive option!

So I’ve asked @Tim_OVO to see if there’s a database available to Moderators which they can consult in order to know when sites are migrated.

Your site is therefore a useful test for us to see if @Tim_OVO can get those answers.

The Forum needs to become the place to which customers turn to obtain the clarifications they need over the next 15-months of the network migration phases.

If a meter ceases to function in smart mode when migrating from one Energy Supplier to another, then we can usually be pretty certain that it’s a SMETS1 version. It it were SMETS2 then the Wide Area network connection would remain the same.

However, you have been informed by CS (Holly ) that there is discrepancy with the number printed on the gas meter.

Until OVO have checked this out with Xoserve, we need to hold off from jumping to a conclusion. The problem could simply be an administrative one related to an incorrect entry on the gas meter database when Coop’s customers were transferred to Octopus.

Welcome @NavSoo !

Could you fill in your forum profile for us please? That might help us to get the right details. If you’re able to snap a few photos of your smart meters and IHD as well, that would be lovely.

We can certainly try to offer some tips and advice here on the forums, but it sounds like a smart meter health check is in order. I’m not sure if we’ve got one for Landis+Gyr meters, but hopefully this thread might help:

If you pop those details in your next reply along with some snaps, we’ll see what we can do.

Thanks @NavSoo , sorry for the wait. This took me a while to research.

Please try to avoid posting personal info here though, as this is a public forum and it risks leaking something you might not want to share. A moderator has edited your comment for now.

I have to admit that I’m absolutely stunned that an energy supplier has absolutely no support for smart meters whatsoever. However, I can confirm that you’ve got SMETS2 smart meters, so they should work just fine with any supplier that can support smart meters, including OVO.

As I’m a forum volunteer here, I don’t like to sound like a sales rep and the advice we offer is always free of charge, even if you’re with another supplier. However, this does leave you with a decision that you might want to make.

If you’d like to get the smart meters working again, my best advice would be to switch supplier. If OVO takes your fancy, you can start the process right over here. But if you’d rather explore the market and find a different supplier, that’s also cool with us too. We’re always happy to help whichever way you go. 

On the other hand, if you’d rather stay with your current supplier and value what you’re getting now over having working smart meters, that’s another option as well. But it doesn’t look like you’ll get them working with Utility Point until if/when they finally add support for it.

I hope this helps. If you’re unsure about anything, feel free to let us know.

Welcome to the weird world of Landis+Gyr @Tim_OVO !

While other brands such as Aclara make telling S1 (such as the Aclara SGM1300 Series) and S2 (such as the Aclara SGM1400 Series) meters apart really easy… L+G have this really weird, strange and somewhat annoying habit of re-using the same model names/numbers for everything! Pretty much the only distinguishing elements of their model numbers is that the newer versions might have something like “Series 5” on it. But even that is badly documented by L+G and it’s unrealistic that most people would be able to find that.

The only reliable way to tell an S1 Landis+Gyr E470 electric meter and G470 gas meter apart from the S2 Landis+Gyr E470 electric meter and G470 gas meter is to basically look at the comms hub that is attached to the electricity meter. While the S2 variants will always have an S2 comms hub that’s similar to others, the older S1 versions will have something else such as Trilliant hubs instead.

In actual fact, while the S1 Aclara meters tend to have Aclara branded comms hub - the Aclara SGM1311 Smart Energy Meter comes with an Aclara SGC1311 Smart Communications Hub for example - which makes identification even easier, I don’t think L+G tend to bundle their own comms hubs into the package, even for the S1 variants.

If you’ve got a Landis+Gyr E470/G470 and are ever unsure if it’s a SMETS1 or SMETS2 though, please do feel free to ask us here on the forums and we’ll give it a shot. If you include some snaps of your meters, comms hub and IHD as well, this makes it even easier for us to give you the right details.

Oh wow, that is just brilliant, thanks L+G 

@Blastoise186 how many wild Pokémon do I need to send your way to get a tutorial made to help UK energy users tell the difference? I’ll be able to use this to update all our other L+G topics including this one…...