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

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
November 29, 2023
153 replies
5714 views

Hello,

I'm an ex-SSE customer that was migrated to OVO in June 2023.
I had a new smart meter fitted on the 16th of December 2022 by SSE and since then I had an issues with the Economy 7 tariff.

Initially, all appliances connected to the off-peak rate circuit (port 5) were always ON instead of turning on and off during rate changes.

After contacting SSE support and later on OVO support multiple times, on the 17th of July 2023, OVO sent an engineer that supposedly fixed our issue but instead it changed to the opposite way:
All appliances connected to the off-peak rate circuit (port 5) are now always OFF during both peak and off-peak hours.

Our heating system consists of storage heaters which are all connected to this off-peak circuit so we are now effectively without heating.

We contacted the OVO support multiple times about this issue with no luck.
They sent multiple emergency and non-emergency engineers and none of them was able to fix our issue beside worsening it on the 17th of July.

By going through other posts on this forum, I came to the conclusion that our problem is probably due to a misconfiguration of our smart meter that could be fixed remotely by OVO, specifically the ECAUL and ALCS config via SMETS commands.

I tried to mention this possible fix and those commands multiple times during phone calls and chats with support but they don't seem to understand what I'm talking about or flat out ignore it.

Both yesterday and today they sent an emergency engineer that as aforementioned were unable to do anything about it and told us to ask for an OVO engineer.
I tried this but the earliest would be the 29th of January which is ridiculous as we would be without heating for 2 more months during winter.

I’m not sure what to do at this point. I also raised formal complaint through the webchat but that seems not to do anything.

Best answer by Emmanuelle_OVO

Updated on 03/04/25 by Ben_OVO:

Hey @insoctek,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

It might be worth speaking to the support team via webchat and sending them this topic. It is something we’ve seen on the Forum several times but might not be something agents are aware of.

They need to ask smart support team to send the ECAUL command to update the ALCS configuration.

Hope this helps.

Firedog

Super User

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.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |

Emmanuelle_OVO

Retired Moderator

Hey @npirritano,

Really sorry to hear this,

I’ve asked Forum_Support to reach out via private message.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

N

npirritanoAuthor

Rank 1

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.

N

npirritanoAuthor

Rank 1

I'm pleased to let you know that the issue is fixed now. The storage heaters did switch on last night!

Thanks for your help!

Before tariff change, the icon on the bottom right is open as it always used to be.

After tariff change, the icon on the bottom right actualy changed to something else for the first time!

My last question is, why were both the phone and webchat support unable to fix this issue?
It took about 3 hours from when OVO_Forum_Support first messaged me to get the issue fixed, but the support was unable to for 11 months even though I kept suggesting what actually turned out to be the right solution?

I’m very confused and upset about all the time wasted talking to the support.

Firedog

Super User

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

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |

Emmanuelle_OVO

Retired Moderator

Hey @npirritano,

I’m really sorry you had such a negative experience with the support team, I can confirm that I’ve raised this issue internally with the smart meter experts.

This hopefully means the problem will be more easily identified in future!

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

I

insoctek

Newcomer

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.