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We have never been able to get our 3-phase AMR meter (economy 7 tariff) read remotely and OVO say they are unable to do so. We have to send in readings. Is this because of lack of signal (postcode Edited by Mod) or because of the type of meter?

Hi @plodder ,

I’m afraid AMRs are a bit of an edge case. Can you post photos please as we don’t see them very often on this forum?


Hi @Blastoise186 ,

Thanks for your reply. The meter was installed by an Ovo subcontractor, so I assumed it would be readable, but of course if we are in a poor signal area it’s a different problem. Our postcode is Edited by Mod if that helps. I attach an image of the meter as requested.

 


Thanks!!! This helps a ton. :)

As far as I can tell, that’s NOT an AMR Meter and it’s also not a Smart Meter either. It appears you’ve got just a bog standard 3-Phase Traditional Meter. That’ll be why it never sends readings automatically.

By the way, please don’t tell me your postcode here. This forum is public and you risk leaking your personal data.


Thanks for a quick response @Blastoise186 - the photo I sent wasn’t very clear. The meter is an EDMI Atlas Mk10D, which is claimed to be a smart meter. I don’t know about the AMR status, it’s what I was told by someone, but it is definitely remotely readable, and it can also remotely connect/disconnect.

Thanks for redacting the postcode - silly  of me.


You don’t seem to have that meter. I’ve seen an EDMI Atlas Mk10D before and it definitely looks nothing like your photo.

Are you sure that’s the model you have?


This is a Mk10D by the way https://www.edmi-meters.com/product/meters/electricity-metering-devices/mk10d/


Oh dear, you are quite right. In a hurry, as usual, I sent you the wrong picture! So sorry. The meter we have is definitely an EDMI Mk10D - picture showing detail attached.

But I looked at the link you sent (thanks!) and it is definitely a smart meter according to the factsheet. So my question is can Ovo just not read this type of meter remotely at present, or do we have a signal strength problem? How can we tell if it is a signal problem?

 


Ta.

This is actually an AMR Meter based on the data I’ve got. OVO can’t easily support reading those remotely because they’re not really used for domestic supplies.

However, I think I can get a better answer for you. Bear with me, I’ll ask @Emmanuelle_OVO to stop by.


Hey @plodder,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

 

I don’t have a clear answer for this, what I would advise is to complete a smart meter health check. It’ll get forwarded to the right team who’ll try and re-gain communications with the meter remotely. If they’re unable to do so, they’ll get in touch to book an engineer appointment. 

 

Hope this helps. 


Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO 

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried to complete the smart meter health check, but it asked whether WAN and/or HAN lights were flashing. Our meter does not have these but there were two lights marked PULSE 1 and PULSE 2 and both were flashing. I don’t know what they mean, but it seems likely the health check will not work for our meter.

I just looked at the OVO support centre where I found out what WAN and HAN are. We don’t have gas, so HAN is irrelevant. We do have reasonable mobile signal most of the time here, so I am guessing the meter should also be reachable.

However, the response we got said we might not hear back for up to 45 days. Not helpful.


Updated on 20/08/24 by Abby_OVO

 

That form only works with Smart Meters, nothing else. AMR Meters are one thing it’s definitely NOT compatible with.

With that being said, I’ve never known an AMR Meter be capable of talking to domestic suppliers. They’re only usually fitted for non-domestic supplies.


@Emmanuelle_OVO

I wonder why there are OVO Engineers out there fitting AMR meters to domestic properties? 

I wonder if OVO Engineers are installing these as a temporary solution if they don't have anything else? 

What would happen if this customer asks OVO to replace their meter with a 3 phase smart meter when they become readily available? 

I assume OVO would do this for free? 

Is that something you could find out? 

 


I suspect the AMR features might not be utilised but that it’s the only option that can be fitted right now. Upgrading to Smart later would likely be free for the customer though, just like swapping Single-Phase Traditional → Smart is free for the customer.


@plodder our smart experts have asked for your details. I’ll send you a private message now to get some account details. 


Hi 

We have an EDMI Atlas MK10d Smart Meter and I have been asked to read and photograph the total export screen but I don’t know which set of data (A or 😎 this information sits in. There is nothing obvious that seems to give this information. Can anyone help? Thanks. 


Although for the Mk10A, this might help

It’s also worth noting that not all meters of this type are set up to record export so you will need to double check


Who would be the right person to double check?

I have tried our electrician, solar panel installers, EDMI, Scottish Power, and Smartest Energy (current energy provider) and can’t get a response from any of them! 

If it isn’t set up can it be or do we need to install an export meter? 

Thanks so much.


Who would be the right person to double check?

I have tried our electrician, solar panel installers, EDMI, Scottish Power, and Smartest Energy (current energy provider) and can’t get a response from any of them! 

If it isn’t set up can it be or do we need to install an export meter? 

Thanks so much.

From the meters I’ve worked with (which were installed by National Grid), they are configured at manufacture. I’m not sure if you had the meter installed yourselves but that might define if it was included in the requirements. 
If you follow the guide on Set B register reading, if it’s there, you should see a reading with some indication of EX (possibly) although that might be a little different with model D

Actually here’s a better guide

https://www.energyassets.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EA_RMM_EDMI-MK10.pdf


Sadly nothing indicating ‘ex’. 

I have looked at that guide but is still not got anything to help. 

Maybe it wasn’t configured at installation to show the information. 

Who would check at this stage an electrician? 

Thanks Sarah 


Sadly nothing indicating ‘ex’. 

I have looked at that guide but is still not got anything to help. 

Maybe it wasn’t configured at installation to show the information. 

Who would check at this stage an electrician? 

Thanks Sarah 

I think only one who knows how to read those meters. 
I did find this from an Australian note

https://youtu.be/B1CN_24y08A?

On the video, export was labelled ‘Ept’


By the way, just wanted to give you a heads up on something.

The meter you have isn’t a Smart Meter - it’s actually an AMR Meter which is somewhat different. Should still be possible to pull Export Readings out of it, but I’m afraid you won’t get stuff like Time of Use Tariffs, an IHD, fancy data or fancy tricks that you can do with Smart Meters like DFS Events.

You might be eligible to upgrade in the next few months to the next year though - depends on circumstances.


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