My smart gas meter isn't communicating with OVO anymore - no readings - why?

This makes sense, @Pegasus - if you have a smart meter that can’t communicate with OVO’s systems remotely for 5 days or more, our live billing system estimates your readings. This translates to estimated usage on the usage pages. 

Make sure to submit a gas reading when your billing summary is due and if we have over estimated, that will be instantly corrected. 

To be sure if your gas meter can’t send us readings, we have an online form here which goes straight to the right team.

Thank you for the replies, It sort of makes sense that if the not so smart meter doesn’t send the readings then estimated is what is going on. If my not so smart meter is rubbish then why don't OVO send me a smarter smart meter! the one I have has never been that smart its 9 yrs old, and why are the estimates always on the high side? I'm a low user, I never use the oven (elec) don't have a TV, LEDs all round, only the fridge and security cameras on 24hrs, the heating only goes on short term to take the chill off. More often than not I am at my families home.

Hey @Pegasus,

Sorry to hear this,

Are you able to send a screenshot of your meter readings on the Online Account? So we can see how frequently we are receiving reads.

You can now complete a smart meter health check form online and it’ll be sent directly to the right team. If you haven’t completed one already, this will allow our team to diagnose and resolve the issue. 

Hope this helps. 

Meters were exchanged 18/10/22, believe it or not the CS I spoke to couldn’t even find that date on their system so I took it from the exchange cards in the cabinets.

Still not sending/receiving meter gas meter reads 53 days later I dont imagine another 3 days is going to miraculously solve this one, do you?

Hey @PF898,

Sorry for the issues you’re having, 

Could it be that the meter details haven’t updated for your gas? When you check your Online Account does it show your correct meter serial number? This can be found on your new meter near the barcode. 

I don’t have access to your account, but from what you’re saying it seems that the engineering company may not have sent us the job report with the details of your new meters. If this is the case, please send Support photos of the yellow stickers on each of your meters that show the removal reads of the old meters, as well as the opening reads for the new meters. Please also send a photo of the front of the meters displaying the new meter serial numbers. 

If the meter details have been updated, it may just be that we aren’t able to communicate with the gas meter, in which case I'd advise submitting a smart meter health check here. 

Hope this helps. 

Hi. The gas meter is still not waking up and the reading on the IDH is still reading the same reading from last year, even though I have been using the gas everyday for heating for the past month. I will attach photos of the meters.

Hi @Walker46 and thanks for flagging this. If the gas meter screen doesn’t light up when you press the black or red button, it’s very likely that it’s faulty. It may well stay on supply indefinitely, but it will need to be replaced. Please contact your energy supplier to arrange this, free of charge. If that’s OVO, contact our Support team here. 

Thank you.  I have contacted SSE and hopefully an engineer will come a look at the meter. I say hopefully because this is the second time I have contacted them.

My meters aren’t being read/sending data. Ovo have been billing me to estimates since 2020 and cant seem to tell me despite having given them almost daily reads since the installation of new SM’s what my actual position is. I have no idea whether I’m actually in credit or deficit and it appears that OVO through this appalling apollo system can’t either.

Having checked the  statements I see despite Ovo supposedly using smart reads from gas meter they have actually been estimating the read values on the statements.

From the statements;

May 20 - Dec 21 (19 months)  readings estimated!!! though for what reason they didnt seem to generate a statement throughout mosyt of this period...

Mar 20 - Apr 20 1 x estimated read and they actually managed to  use an actual read (meter reader??)

All other (monthly statements in 22 appear to have estimates as well

Based on the one actual read I can see they have in their system can I calculate what the likely consumption and bill is likely to be. Various tariffs and time periods but does anyone know of or is able to create a spreadsheet that can do this as it seems to be beyond Ovo.

How do I raise a complaint to Ovo, which I know they wont resolve but then I can lodge a complaint with the ombudsman and see if we can get a resolution.

Regrettable that we have to go to such lengths eh, but hey ho here we go again!

For a good result is to contact Resolver, https://www.resolver.co.uk I had a problem with my broadband that seem to be just ignored by my provider, so I made a complaint through resolver and guess what they were on it straight away it still took a month but it was resolved and with a good will payment. I am still waiting for OVO to get back to me about giving me a new up to date Smart Meter that will actually send my readings, but why should they when they can over estimate and charge more to keep more money in the kitty, cynical yes but thats how I see it so come on OVO send me a new +++++++ smart meter. You want me to read the meters then pay me like you used to have to pay a meter reader! Does anyone from OVO read this forum? I get so annoyed that we are treated like we don't exist, we are the customer that supplies them [OVO] with their life style.

There are indeed two types of people from OVO who read literally everything posted to the forum.

Firstly, there’s two Forum Moderators who are OVO Employees dedicated to running the show here. They’re around every weekday from roughly 8:30am to 6pm ish. Exact times vary depending on what’s going on at the office, among other things. They deal with moderation emergencies, throw banhammers at forum spammers, keep the place tidy and act as a link between OVO and the community, as well as working with the second group of helpers here.

Then there’s the Forum Volunteers such as myself. We’re just customers either of OVO or another supplier who help out here in our own time for free. We don’t work for OVO at all, so we’re completely independent. Our availability is basically 24/7 with various hours where some of us are actively patrolling, and other times when we’re passively monitoring the forum. We report directly to the Forum Moderators for basically anything we feel needs to be flagged up e.g. forum spammers, rule violations, vulnerable customers, emergencies and the like.

Before you do anything else, can you run your meters through this tool for me, and let me know the results?

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Thanks for that, I will do that over the weekend. 👍.

Hello, I’ve checked several times only to get this “We can’t find your meter” Gas & Elec..??

Ok… That’s not a good position to be in.

The diagnosis I can give in that case is one of two things (it could be either one!):

1. The meter has completely dropped off and might be unrecoverable
2. The check tool has choked again (wouldn’t be the first time)

If it’s the former, OVO and DCC can try to recover it to get it kickstarted again. If the recovery fails, you’ll become eligible for a SMETS2 hardware upgrade.

If it’s the latter, well there’s not much you can do about that. The CAB tool isn’t perfect and this sometimes happens.

Hi, I’m hoping for some help, I had a gas smart meter fitted in October, and it’s not worked since it was fitted, as I’m still getting estimated gas bills from my old meter, I’ve had numerous conversations with OVO and promises it will be sorted, yet it’s still not I’m a pensioner and live on my own and the estimated bill seem very high, the electric meter works as shown on the app

Hi @Parfi1959 it sounds like the meter is working, just not sending readings. Is it somewhere that you can take a look? The display is usually blank but if you press a button it will light up and you can take a reading to send yourself. That’s a start, then we can try to find out what’s not working. 
Is it a distance from the electric meter?

Hi thank you, I’ve taken a meter reading and sent it by email as requested, the meter is very close to the electric meter, I’ve also done the meter test and sent it, still nothing has been done on my bill is old meter reading from 6 th October 

Can you take a photo of your electric meter and include the bit with the flashing lights then tell us what the lights are doing

Hi yes I can but will have to ask my neighbour to do that, is a bit later on ok , when we checked on the list they were flashing at 5 second intervals both wan and Han thank you

Whenever suits is fine. Someone will stop by later and see if they can help

Hi This is the photo 

The sw wan Han and gas are flashing green every 5 seconds, the top photo is the gas meter and reading 

Ok thanks. So the green flashing at 5 sec intervals suggests all is ok there. Has anyone asked you to go through this online form https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com/

Sorry if you’ve already done this but just trying to go through the sequence of testing

Looks like the gas meter has a good signal, but there’s a message waiting for you on it. Could you go into the menus and tell us what it is please?

Hi yes did the online check, on the message screen it reads gas meter initialised, sorry for the delay had to wait for my neighbour 

Ok, if it’s all initialised and connected locally, it’s worth checking the link to the main hub at the DCC. There’s a citizens advice link to this 

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/meters/new?fuel_type=gas