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

  • 20 August 2020
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Smart meter not working at all now, gas hasn't worked since leaving Coop ....only had a problem since changing supplier which wasn't my choice the Coop migrated all their customers to another supplier.

Had an engineer booked for early this year but it was cancelled due to Covid-19 which I understood. Had no feedback from Ovo since. The Co-op had my meter installed and it worked perfectly until I changed supplier.

I understand after hearing a call from an Ovo customer with the same problem who called a radio 5 programme after being told by the ombudsman there was nothing they could do because a third party was involved, namely the National Data Base. So not holding out much hope that my problem will be fixed either. So back to  sending manual energy readings.

 

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Best answer by Transparent 21 August 2020, 15:25

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Userlevel 7
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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.

Userlevel 1

Thank you.

My Electric meter is a Landis+Gyr E470 and was fitted on 4 January 2019.  This worked fine until migrated from Coop to Octopus, I stayed with them for a week or 2 but customer service was shocking (a victim of their own  success I suspect, a lot had been moved moved over) So joined Ovo on 27 December 2019.

Was booked in for health check with Ovo on 4 April 2020 which understandably had to be cancelled, so submitting gas readings monthly... electric has been fine.

My IHD stopped working a few days ago and keeps rebooting with the message ' waiting for current data'.  The WAN light on meter is flashing.  Tried rebooting next to meter doesn't work. 

IHD is IHD3-PPMID/CA30115

GUID OC-A2-F4-00-00-2D-17-10.   2018

Hope this helps will look at my profile.

Kind regards.

 

Userlevel 7
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Updated on 14/12/22 by Emmanuelle_OVO

Welcome to OVO!

Great question to ask about the function of your Landis and Gyr meter after switching to OVO. The communication of your meters will depend on whether you have S1 or S2 Landis and Gyr meters - as both these meters have the model name E470 it can be hard to tell but luckily we’ve broken it down a bit in the guide below:


What does a SMETS1 (S1) Landis+Gyr E470 look like?

 

Here’s an example of one installed by British Gas/Centrica:
 

Original image credit @Jason Kovesdi 

 

There’s also another type of SMETS1 Landis+Gyr E470 smart meter, that looks like this:

 

Another type of SMETS1 meter. Notice the separate comms hub to the right...

 

The common characteristic of the SMETS1 versions is that they have a separate Communications (Comms) Hub next to the meter, such as the Trilliant SEAP-2001-V. If you’ve got one of these, your gas meter will also be SMETS1 and is probably a Landis+Gyr G370.



What does a SMETS2 (S2) Landis+Gyr E470 look like?

 

Here’s an example of one that was originally installed by EDF:

 

An S2 EDF Landis+Gyr E470 with Toshiba SKU1 Cellular Comms Hub


Pretty much all S2 L+G E470 meters look a bit like this one, but might not have the supplier stickers. They never have a black border around the display, and will always have one green and one grey button - but might not be in the same places.

 

 

Which Landis and Gyr meters can OVO communicate with?

 

If you’ve got an S2 Landis and Gyr meter, we’ll be able to communicate with this one straight away. However at the moment we may not be able to communicate with your S1 Landis and Gyr meters. There’s good news on the horizon though - these meters are due to be remotely upgraded to send us the readings automatically - all L+G meters are due to complete this upgrade by September 2022 - read more about this here.
 

 

What happens if the meters aren’t communicating?


Until your S1 meter is upgraded it’ll still clock your usage, you’ll just have to take the reading manually. You can submit this easily each month on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS). Unfortunately we won’t be able to get your In-Home Display (IHD) paired up to show your usage data until we’re able to communicate with the meter. As soon as your meter is updated, we’ll be in touch to let you know - at this point you can contact our Support Team to get the IHD back up and running.

 

What if my meters been upgraded to SMETS2 but it’s not communicating?

 

If your meter’s been remotely upgraded to SMETS2 (S2) but we aren’t communicating with the meters, fill out this Online Form which will be sent directly to the right team! 

 


 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

 

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

 

Userlevel 1

Thank you Transparent

I refused a smart meter until Smets2 had been rolled out,  I was with First Utility at the time. I waited a year before going ahead and only then when I had been reassured by the Coop and the installer's that it would be a Smets2. My gas meter definitely is, it's an L&G.

I'm gutted and angry that a Smets1 has been fitted after I had taken precautions ..or thought I had..before going ahead.

So I shouldn't have to wait Ovo could just change the meter if the goodwill was there. Need to get in touch with customer services.  I have osteoporosis two pinned hips the smart meter was important to me if I wanted to avoid estimated bills.

Not what I wanted to hear. But thanks. 

By the way I hope the information on my profile will not be used for marketing and generate junk emails,. Not sure  most of that was relevant to my question.

Regards 

 

 

 

Userlevel 7
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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.

Userlevel 4

Hi @Bar58, I’ve added some tags to this post to make a it more visible for other’s with similar issues.

 

I definitely think getting in touch with us directly would be the best option here, I can appreciate how important it is to have functioning smart meters.

 

You can call on 0330 303 5063 between 8am - 6pm Monday - Friday, message us on  FacebookTwitter or webchat via the Help centre.

 

As for the personal information, don’t worry, the only people who can see this are the forum moderators, so it won’t be used for marketing purposes or anything else, just for us to be able to better help you.

Userlevel 1

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

Userlevel 1

Hi

Still no contact from the smart team. Sent information asked for, video, photographs, scale drrawing for meter locations etc. Wait 10 days told no contact, sent info again wait 10 more workings days, nothing. Wait 3 to 5 working days . Nothing. IHD didn't join/pair told to wait an hour, might take 4 hours, call in 3 days, nothing.

I'm off ...it will cost me £60 which is a bitter pill to swallow as I do not believe Ovo have honoured their contract to me. Meter worked fine until migrating to them and nothing has changed. Just an email from the Smart team with an approximate date for fixing this or tell me you can't would be something.

Will write to MD, MP and Ofgem except they won't do anything because a third party is involved. Shame this has soured my time with Ovo. Just give customers an honest answer even if it something out of your control and not necessarily what they wish hear...but please do not fob them off.

Bar58

Userlevel 1

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,!!!

 

 

Userlevel 7
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Erm.. The facts don’t appear to support your conclusion, @Bar58 

OVO Energy have taken over the retail division of SSE in January 2020. SSE Services had failed to comply with Ofgem’s targets for installation of Smart Meters in 2019. This isn’t an isolated issue. Half of the GB Energy Suppliers failed that 2019 target, which was in part due to a 6-month delay in SMETS2 Meters gaining approval.

That delay was due to security concerns being addressed by the National Cyber Security Centre - a factor over which the Energy Suppliers had no control. They responded by requesting extensions from Ofgem to the timeframe by which they must cease installing SMETS1 meters. These agreements resulted in additional orders for SMETS1 equipment beyond the contracts with the manufacturers.

Ofgem decided to proceed with punitive enforcement after the acquisition of SSE, and OVO Energy has voluntarily paid a £1.2m assessment in order to stop the action dragging on to a costly legal battle.

I don’t see how actions by SSE Services during the early part of 2019 impinges on OVO not addressing your problem.

Userlevel 7
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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.

 

Userlevel 7

Thanks for sharing the latest on this situation, @Bar58 - far from ideal for you, not a good experience, but hoping we can still offer some help and insight here. 

 

@Transparent has provided accurate (as always) info on the SSE related Ofgem fines, and your options for complaining. See above to determine which route works best for you. 

 

I’m still a little unsure of this myself, and maybe the likes of Transparent can help me. You have a Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1 smart meter. My search online shows this is a British Gas SMETS1 smart meter due to be enrolled onto SMETS2 at the end of 2020. 

 

So, either this hasn’t happened yet, or it has, and you’re experiencing connectivity issues since being enrolled onto SMETS2. I’m hoping you might be able to confirm which?

Userlevel 1

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.

Userlevel 7
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I don’t think we have enough information within this Topic to confirm whether this Landis & Gyr E470 is SMETS1 or SMETS2@Tim_OVO 

Centrica (British Gas) were certainly the most significant user of this type of meter, but by no means the only one. It’s credible that they were being fitted by Co-op Energy in Jan 2019.

@Bar58 states that his Gas Meter is definitely SMETS2, and that OVO CS confirmed on 21st August that he has SMETS2 meters.

Against that argument is the installation date of 4th Jan 2019. That’s quite early for SMETS2, but not impossible. At that time OVO were still fitting SMETS1 meters and being granted an extension to 16th March by Ofgem.

We might be able to tell more if we knew the varient of E470 which was installed.

Looking at the SmartMe website these are the approved SMETS1 versions:

and these are the SMETS2 ones:

ESME denotes an electricity meter, and GSME is gas.

Userlevel 7
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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.

Userlevel 1

According to my calender my smart meter was fitted in January 2019. The gas meter at the time was a very old original to the house and indoors.

 

In April 2019 during a small extension the meter was moved outside and changed by Western Power. However the smart meter carried on working on both gas and electric until I migrated away from Co-op. Ring any bells?

Userlevel 7
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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 :star:) 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.

My Landis + Gyr E470 672 smart meter isn't communicating, and the IHD has stopped working - what can I do?

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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.

Dear Sir / Madam

 

Can you please advise me how can I solve communication issue with smart metres and inhouse display unite because our current supplier Utility Point are unable to support smart meters?

A – Provided by our last energy supplier igloo energy

B - Installed by Magnum Utility?

C – Made by Landis + Gyr

Gas smets2- Landis + Gyr G470 672

Electric smets2 - Landis + Gyr G470 Type 5424

D – Inhouse Glow Display GD-1/1.5.0/1.2.4 by Hildebrand

E – To communicate with Bright App

*edited by mod*

Kind regards

*edited by mod*

 

Userlevel 7
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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. :blush:

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.

Userlevel 7

Great advice from @Blastoise186 and great info to help us to help you, @NavSoo.

 

I think I may need to do a bit of a content update task here. As it seems the confusing way these Landis+Gyr G470 meters are labeled is causing some potential miss advice. 

 

I’ve moved your comments over to this thread, originally posted by @Bar58 - as it seemed to be an identical question. But now it seems there are different types of Landis+Gyr G470 meters, some are S1, some are S2?

 

I need to look at this and update the best answers of these relevant topics. Any help here would be appreciated! 

Userlevel 7
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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.

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In fact… I’m afraid it gets even more complicated still, because Landis+Gyr also likes to throw yet another curveball into the mix.

It seems that just like their electric meters, multiple L+G gas meters also look very similar to each other. If you take a look at their product offering and filter it to Gas meters under View by type, you’ll probably spot the snag.

Based on the current listings, you’ve got the L+G G350 which is a smart meter, but I’m not sure if it’s S1 or S2. However, you’ve also got the very similar looking L+G Libra 310 which is a different model that you can’t really distinguish from the G350… And on top of that, you’ve got the L+G Libra 110 which is a prepayment meter that looks almost identical to the Libra 310 and G350. The only obvious difference is the fact the Libra 110 has a card reader slot, which the other two don’t seem to have.

And if you were to put a G350 side by side with a G470… It’s also nearly impossible to tell those apart either...

Landis+Gyr almost seem to have done an Apple - where pretty much every new new iPhone, iPad and MacBook model looks almost exactly like the last one and you need to be Sherlock Holmes to tell them apart!

Userlevel 7

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

 

@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…...

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