OVO Smart Meter fitted- Off-peak circuit always OFF?

You’re not the first to be subjected to this shameful treatment, and sadly I don’t suppose you’ll be the last. Your meter’s dysfunction has become a well-known issue that should be easily fixed remotely by OVO’s metering team, but not (as you’ve discovered) by a visiting engineer who happened not to be otherwise engaged.

I’ve tried to get OVO staff involved, so please keep an eye on your private messages. You’ll have to identify yourself and your meter, so please have your MPAN and MSN handy. The MPAN you find on a recent bill; the MSN is clearly visible in your screenshot (21M0378161) and should be enough for OVO to identify the misbehaving device. 

I’ve spoken to OVO_Forum_Support via private message and they told me that the ECAUL has been sent which hopefully fixes my issue. I’ll check tonight and update in the morning.

Thanks both for your help.

That’s really good news. Kudos to @Emmanuelle_OVO and @OVO_Forum_Support for sparking when the call came 👍👍👍👍👍 

Hello

I've joined the forum to ask for help with a very similar problem to that experienced by @npirritano. I had a smart meter installed in a rental flat in January this year. It was vacant at the time and I had no need to turn on the heating until late March, as I had a rental arranged for the beginning of April. I live nearby and I went in early morning and found the storage heaters were stone cold. It was around 6 a.m. and the In House Display was indicating that it was in the off-peak period. I had a voltage tester and confirmed that the meter tails to the off-peak consumer unit were not carrying any current.
The account was with SSE at that time, so I called them and they arranged for an emergency callout that day. The engineer replaced the smart meter with the a regular Economy 7 meter (not a smart meter), which he had in his van. All the storage heaters were back working again the next morning.
SSE never updated the change of meter on their records and I have never been able to send in a manual reading since because the account was still showing the (removed) smart meter number. I rang SSE and was on the phone for over an hour. I sent them a detailed email and I sent a letter to Ovo in July, enclosing images of the meter and the card which the engineer had left in the meter box. No-one ever replied to the email or letter.
Just over 2 weeks ago, I had an email saying, "Urgent. We need your meter reading!" They had been estimating since the smart meter stopped sending a signal at the end of March. I called them and customer service said they would send an engineer.
This engineer installed a new smart meter on 27th November. The heaters were all swirched on that night and I can’t believe that I have the same problem again!! The off-peak consumer unit is not receiving power at all. The IHD works fine, shows the two tariffs and changes at midnight and 7 a.m., but the 2nd circuit for the storage heaters is not activating at all. I found this forum and it seems that something is wrong with the configuration that, hopefully, can be corrected remotely. A customer service agent arranged for an engineer from a smart meter company to look at the meter a couple of days ago. He did some tests and found no fault with it. He asked me enquire what SSC code the meter is set up with. He suggested the meter function that opens and closes the fifth port could be on a 24/7 tariff setting, which would explain why it always stays off.

There is a complication: in my online account, it still shows that I have the original smart meter, which was installed in January and removed in March. However, under Usage, I can see the hour by hour usage of the meter which was installed on 27th November. So, it is communicating with my account, but the MSN is not correct.

I'd be most grateful if this could be brought to the attention of the team that can look at the ECAUL/ALCS settings and, if necessary, correct them remotely.

Thank you @Blastoise186 for your prompt reply. I will try that.

Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO  Thank you for your message.
I sent an email complaint to Support on Friday and received an automated reply saying that someone would respond within 2 working days. I did also get a phone call on Friday evening from someone at Support, but he was not able to offer any immediate action as he would be on leave for a few days. I didn't get the impression that he was familiar with this issue.

I will keep you updated.

Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO

Thank you for your message. I tried webchat yesterday and chatted to 3 agents in total, spread over 90 minutes. Unfortunately, none of them could help. They asked me what is the problem, asked security questions, then said they have to leave me on hold for a few minutes, then I am passed over to another agent! The third agent said the team were not trained to handle such queries and suggested I try calling the number on the Support page. That was the first thing I did several days ago. I am hoping now that agent who phoned me on Friday, but who is on leave for a few days this week, will take the matter up when he comes back, as he did say he would "own the problem".

Keep an eye out on this page for the message @insoctek 

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview

I am sorry to report that no-one has contacted me yet to say they will be sending an ECAUL command to update the ALCS configuration on my smart meter.  This is taking so long to resolve!

We’ve seen several similar cases over the past few months, the common symptom being no power to the second, switched circuit when it is supposed to be active, i.e. during offpeak hours. Assuming you have the same type of meter as  shown in the screenshot above, it should be a quick and easy fix so long as you can get the message to the Smart people. That seems to be the difficult bit, but I can only suggest you keep trying via Support. As Community Manager Emmanuelle wrote earlier, Support have to ask the Smart support team to send the ECAUL command to update your ALCS configuration. 

I hate to think of you having to be without heating until the New Year, but I hope your alternative arrangements make it possible for you to have a happy Christmas nevertheless.

Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO

Thank you for your message.

I did get a private message on Friday that Support were trying to resolve the issue, but nothing subsequently to say they had sent an ECAUL update. I know there has been no change as I have checked.

Hi  @Emmanuelle_OVO 

Thank you for following this up for me. 

I am very happy to report that the ECAUL did the trick and the off-peak circuit on my smart meter is working now!

Help and advice from the Forum has been crucial in getting my problem resolved and I am most grateful to all who gave assistance,  especially @Emmanuelle_OVO  Thank you.