@Tim_OVO No meter readings for the 1st Jan!  (1st Oct & 1st April 2022)

This thread had originally been titled 

“No Smart Meter readings shown on the Online Account On / for ? the 1st October?”

But then retitled “since”

Going back to last year (2022) the 1st of the month in April  had been the date of a change in the unit cost of electricity & gas as set by the energy price cap,

So all accounts with a variable tariff were adjusted to the new increased unit costs.

back in  April, ovo failed to pull a meter reading on the day the tariff changed , so the meter readings on my bill were estimated,

I did originally post my findings back then.

but to recap…

My account with estimated meter readings at midnight 31 March > 1 April being 1 unit out on both electric & gas resulting the customer being over charged, 

to the customer a few pennies is no big deal,

but if my findings were repeated across ovo’s customer base, the figure if I remember correctly was just short of £500,000 extra in ovo’s bank account!

So estimated meter readings have a huge financial impact if that missing data just happens to occur at the right time.

So with no errors with my smart meters!

why is it ovo fail to provide actual meter readings on the day’s of a change to the energy price cap?  1st April / 1st October 22 & 1st January 23!

(I can think of £500.000 reasons why they don’t)

Tom…

I’ve just reported the very same issue @Tim_OVO .  Since the 1st Jan no automatic meter readings and the meter appears to be in good health (OK WAN signal, IHD displaying correct 30 min usage for both elec and gas).  I’m now being asked to manually submit the readings.  I checked back to the 1st Oct and the reading was estimated, though automatic readings re-started on the 2nd Oct.  I raised this with your support team today and they were unaware of any link between Price Cap adgustments and issues with smart readings.   

Thanks for pointing out what was in plain sight but somehow missed by me, @eezytiger @TomThumb - I think I need another coffee!

This is good insight, Tom, @stewpotg2 and I’ll pass it on to the Kaluza teams that create and maintain this billing platform. Anything good I’ll pop back here to share with you all. 

Cheers @Tim_OVO 

Not of benefit to me, but might be useful to the Dev’s.

Additional data, 

Associated with the estimated readings for both fuels on the day of a change to the price cap, as shown in my account for meter readings history & on the associated monthly bill / statement.

1st April / 1st October / 1st December,

the trend continues with usage history, 

My online account is also not showing usage data (elec, gas) for the day prior to the price cap change.

The day tab shows no data for:

ie: 31st March / 30th September / 31st December.

But the usage data is available when looking from the month tab,

No other issues viewing the published data for meter readings or usage history apart from the aforementioned dates.

Tom…

Fortunately for me I'm on a fixed tariff, but for anyone who has a price rise from 1st January I guess you can look forward to an extra day at the increased rate. Is that legal?

Coincidence or not, I don't know, but I have two IHDs at home (Ovo and Glow) and both have lost connection with my meters.

I tried turning off and on at the consumer unit, but connection has not been restored. Is this maintenance or some kind of meter fault? I've never knowingly experienced a disconnection from the meters in several years as an Ovo customer. Nothing had been moved and no changes to the RF within the home.

Googling doesn't result in any actionable solutions and chat is now closed. Any ideas?

I was switched from SSE and been following all the data provided by the system.  There have been a few days when meter readings are not shown eg 01/01/2023 is missing for Gas and Electricity.  The KWhrs are given so they must be available? It’s easy to calculate these for Electricity - gas is a bit tricky but I am able to do it.

Secondly why is the Billing Period not  Monthly - like the Usage data?  Seems an unnecessary complication.

Lets see some photos of the meters. This stuff is right up my street! :D

I’ve not seen anything system-wide in the last few days that might’ve affected Chameleon In Home Displays, @eezytiger. You might find this helpful:

@TomThumb the Kaluza team agree that it looks to be price-change related for second generation (or enrolled and adopted first generation) smart meters. I’ll ask the question about the missing day’s worth of usage, @eezytiger. My assumption is any day we can’t get a reading will be estimated to the correct prices and retrospectively updated if we get the data in the days that follow, as is usually the case.  

Hi @lmwragg and thanks for these questions. 

Your online account has a daily billing system:

It’s then divided up into monthly summaries. *edit: there currently isn’t a way to change the start/end date of these summaries*

@Blastoise186 @Tim_OVO 

I made contact with Ovo Chat on Saturday morning and have completed a meter health check by email as the online form for submission cannot be completed. Today I received a phone call from James in support, so there is a ticket raised. My IHDs are still without connection and automated meter readings have ceased, with the last successful reading taken on the 6th. I've been told to wait 30 days to see if it fixes itself.

I can provide photos of the meters if it is likely to help, but I'm not sure what can be done. The WAN light is currently pulsing slowly five times, which is as it should be. However, whilst filing the health check I observed a solid light, five rapid pulses and between 3-5 slow pulses at different times.

Hmm… Sounds like flaky comms to me if that’s the case.

The app or portal account has not been displaying usage data since October 2022 and despite numerous communications with the Customer Help Desk (including real people!) there has been no progress on this matter. The smart meter is apparently sending data OK - according to my account meter readings but all daily consumption since October is just shown as flatline averages of the overall monthly consumption. I did not request a Home device when the smart meter was installed because the app offered the same information but now it doesn’t. I have deleted and re-installed the app and tried all other suggestions but   To no avail. It just doesn’t work any more!  The problem is clearing in the app since the meter is sending the data. Get it fixed!

Sorry to hear this, @STUOVO (as the username has OVO in it which is reserved for OVO staff, we’ll need to change that: could you let me know your preferred username and I’ll make the change?).

It’s good that the smart meters are sending your readings. Although to be sure, are the meter readings listed here showing as ‘smart’: https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/electricity ?

It’s good to rule out a lack of usage data. With that done, it does sound like something technical that’s in the background not working as it should be. If you haven’t already, please flag this with our Support team. Whilst you wait for a fix, have you considered any free to download usage apps that use the same smart meter data that your supplier does: Hugo is one. More info here:

Hi Tim, Thanks for response. Yes, according to my account info the daily readings are from a Smart meter. I also checked that the Smart meter was operating OK after first speaking to Customer Support. 

I am happy to change my User name to STUVO.

How can a third party app access information to my electricity consumption - presumably my supplier, ie. OVO is supplying them with this information from my smart meter? If their app can display usage, why can’t the OVO app?

Your username is now changed @STUVO - thanks for confirming your preference. 

When smart meters connect up to the Data Communications Company (DCC), suppliers and third party apps retrieve the data from there. 

We’ve seen examples where these third party apps have better data coverage than the supplier!

FWIW my smart meter has finally come back online six days after it first disappeared. IHDs are both showing data again.

I've been submitting daily readings,  so my Ovo account is up to date,  albeit without the half hourly details,  but all three of my third party apps are missing days worth of data. Maybe they will back fill in the next day or so.  Maybe not.  Who knows? 

I've got absolutely no idea why it went offline and no idea what was done to fix it,  but I'm glad it's functioning again.  

@Tim_OVO so my smart meter was finally replaced (I have a new IHD too) but not seeing any readings on the app or the website… back to estimated readings agan. I called OVO and they were apparently able to read from their end? Why am not seeing on the app/website and having estimated readings?

It takes time for the account to be fully updated after a meter swap. Hang in there for now! It’ll be done soon.

Fair enough, but it’s already been 5 days...

It takes up to six weeks for a newly installed meter to fully commission.

                                                               **********

@Tim_OVO The trend continues.

You can add 1st April 2023 to the list, another change to my tariff due to the energy price cap & no data on my account.

Altho this time round,

rather than the usual missing data & readings from the 1st day of the tariff change,

my account is reporting no meter readings so far for April (10 days & counting)

so if any fix has been applied by kaluza, it’s has still not been resolved.

My next step would be a smart meter health check,

i could get down to floor level where the meters are, getting back up is a different matter!

so saving that challenge for another day.

Tom…

Thanks for flagging, @TomThumb. I’m aware of issues from the 1st April that is related to smart meter data from the Data and Communications Company (DCC), and issues sending usage data (to energy suppliers and authorised third parties alike) for that day due to the volume of other commands being sent to the meters for price changes. However meter readings and usage should be showing up from the 2nd onwards. Can you confirm if it’s just the usage section or also your daily meter readings that are missing: https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings

The missing daily readings happens at every switch of the price cap since i had a smart meter with ovo when i look at my account. I have learnt just to ignore it as i suspect it will never change. It doesn’t impact me as the next reading catches up. 

This is as far as i can go back on the readings page although i had an ovo smart meter before this. I guess old readings are removed. 

So i suspect i will see it every 3 months now. 

1st April

1st July

1st Oct

1st Jan

@Jeffus  Over any other billing period without a tariff change, I would totally agree with you.

But ovo relying on estimated meter readings on the only day that has a financial impact is something they should be getting right.

The price change this time round is negligible, but last year, when there is  a significant increase to the price cap, (like 2022)

 If my 1 kWh meter readings difference, actual Vs estimated were to be repeated across ovo’s entire customer base, while that cost per customer is worth pence, it could be worth in excess of a 5 figure sum to ovo’s bank balance.

@Tim_OVO  It had been just the meter readings that had failed to show on my account,

but as of today 11th April, meter readings have resumed.

There was /is a slight quirk with the usage data tho, 

the usage stats on month tab seemed to populate correctly,

But switch to the day tab & the last entry is the 30th March.

Tom…