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

Thank you. I did get an email and a voicemail on the 12th telling me that they have raised a case to reconfigure my meter and it would be done within 14 working days. With how cold it is in my part of Scotland right now i am very hopeful it will be soon. It's too cold to not be able to use the storage heaters and i'm spending a silly amount of money using 1 small panel electric heater to heat the whole of the ground floor of my home which barely takes the edge off and i have 4 young children. I will just be happy when its all sorted. Its been nearly 2 months of trying and it's only thanks to the help on this forum that i've managed to get anywhere at all with it. I am extremely grateful, thank you.

I’ll chase this up today ​@CuriousFairy 

To cut the long story short I had the same issue with SSE/OVO in 2022.

We have Underfloor Heat Storage and Hot-Water System on E7 with 5-Terminal RTS Meter (dedicated O/P Cable to the O/P CU).  In May 2022 SSE changed the RTS meter with SMETS2.  Only in Sep 2022 when we needed the heating system we noted that the system does not work.  Lots of visits by OVO engineers, they could not get the SMETS2 to connect to WAN as the meter is installed inside an Electrical Utility Room within the concrete underground carpark.  They also failed to get the off-peak power kicking in.  At the end the ONLY solution was to put the Old RTS Meter back. We had two years of trouble-free operation with the very old (but reliable) RTS meter.

The BBC4 radio frequency is expected to be switched off on 30 June 2025. Ofgem, the energy regulator, currently expects all RTS meters to be replaced with SMETS2 by this date. 

OVO RTS Team approached us last week again asking us to change to SMETS2. I understand based on the information from “Citizen Advice” & “Energy UK” that if we can’t get a WAN/MESH connection some suppliers may choose to provide a non-connected smart meter with pre-programmed switching times as a temporary solution.   This would be an acceptable solution to us as we are mainly interested in having our storage heating system working on O/P power.

Before we go ahead with this I would like to know if ALCS set-up (to switch the O/P on and off based on meter internal calendar) requires the SMETS2 to be accessed via WAN/MESH (wireless) after installation or the engineer can pre-programme this with the off-peak schedule manually without wireless connection?

I tried to get this information from OVO (used the chat, telephone line, email, etc.) with ZERO luck as it seems the issue is too technical for them and I cannot get access to the smart meter technical team.

I would appreciate it if someone here can help with this question.

Hey ​@Siberia 

I’ll see if I can get some advice on this internally & report back.

Hey ​@Siberia 

I’ve had a response from an expert:

The answer here is that where auxiliary load switching is required to replace RTS, OVO's field force will use either an Aclara SGM1416B 5 terminal meter or an L+G E470+L470 5 terminal meter. These meters are pre-programmed to switch by default at E7 times (specifically 00:00 to 07:00) so that in the event WAN connection cannot be established the meters will still engage the 5th terminal at the times specified. The engineer doesn't need to do anything on site, as long as one of these meters is used, they will have default switching times. Worth noting that smart meters work in UTC so whilst it will switch 00:00 to 07:00 now, when we move to BST that those times will effectively change by an hour. Also, the meters will have a randomised offset which can change the switch time by up to ten minutes (i.e. it might be set to switch at 00:00 but it could switch at 00:06, as an example)

​@Emmanuelle_OVO 

Thank you very much.

This is the most sensible answer I have got over the last few weeks.  I am aware of the UTC and randomised offset and fully okay with both.  The probabilty of WAN working here is low (even with WAN+MESH+Internal Aerial T2).  But, as I mentioned above this does not bother us as our main interest is to avoid the same issues we had in 2022 with smart meter.  As long as the new SMETS2 can swtich the dedicated O/P Cable on at around 00:00 and turn it of at around 07:00 we are okay.

To make sure I am not missing anything (last time we suffered a lot as it was a very cold winter and it took a couple of months to get the RTS meter back) - please note that the smart meter SSE/OVO installed for me on 3rd May 2022 (see photos attached) was a SMETS2 -  Aclara SGM1416B 5 terminal. On one of the photos you can see TOU1 and TOU2, latter is open.  It never closed, even during the off-peak hours.  

Is there any reason why OVO Smart Meter Specialists now believe that it will work this time?

I am hoping that the answer is simple e.g. “that in early 2022 these meters were not pre-programmed to switch by default at E7 times (specifically 00:00 to 07:00)”???

Once again thank you for your help.  I am sure lots of other consumers with RTS Meters have or will have the same question/issue.

​@Emmanuelle_OVO 

As it stands right now OVO RTS Team has booked an appointment for Monday 25th Nov morning to change the old RTS Meter with a new SMETS2. 

It would be very helpful and kind of you if I can have an answer to the above question today since if this solution is NOT going to work I need to cancel the appointment asap as OVO requires a reasonable notice for cancellation.  Thank you. 

Hey ​@Siberia 

I’ll ask internally for the same expert to take a look & I’ll report back 🙂

​@Emmanuelle_OVO 

It is much appreciated. I shall eagerly await your feedback.

For your SMETS Expert benefit - eraly this morning I managed to check one of the smart meters located close to my old RTS meter.  This is not an OVO meter but it is for sure Aclara SGM1416B 5 terminal.  From the LED lights on the communications hub I can clearly establish that this meter is working in “dumb” mode i.e. no WAN/MESH and no connection to DCC System (there is no aerial antena on this unit). 

I specifically noted the display at Off-Peak Time as well as the Peak Time.  The 1st image below is taken during the Off-Peak Time which shows both LC1 and LC2 (I assume means Load Current 1 and Load Current 2 - but this is just a guess).  I assume this means that both Peak and Off-Peak cables are live and providing power. I also noted that exactly at 07:00 hours the image changed to the 2nd image below showing only Switch “I” On and Swtich II off. 

Am I correct to assume that this indicates that this Aclara SGM1416B was pre-programmed to switch by default at E7 times (specifically 00:00 to 07:00)?  For sure the provider could not have sent ECAUL remotely cause there is no working WAN/MESH!

Thank you, 

Off-Peak Image taken at 06:55

Peak-Hour Image taken at 07:00

We’re told that OVO multi-rate meters intended for sites with known dodgy WAN connections are nowadays pre-configured for E7 as a default. This means with any luck that a new meter will have both its ToU matrix and its ALCS set to the appropriate E7 timings for the location. That seems to be the situation with the meter you looked at.

LC is Load Control; I think that LC1 is the internal 100A contactor, while LC2 is the little 2A switch which may be connected to an external contactor, but it doesn’t have to be. When you took the second photo, both switches were closed as you’d hoped.

Next time you’re poking around, press button A a bit more often to see the various displays. Unless there’s some local generation going on (e.g. from solar panels), the Export readings will be zero. The interesting readings would be ToU Rate 1 and 2, giving the state of the peak and offpeak registers. Total Active Import should be the sum of the ToU registers.

It’s worth checking, too, that ToU Rate 1 is in fact for peak usage; meters like this have been known to be fitted with the registers the wrong way round, with unknown but probably not happy consequences.

In any case, it looks as if you’re good to go ahead with getting your meter exchanged. Then you can start wondering about how to get you all on to the WAN.