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Secure Liberty 100 meters (from First Utility) - are they compatible with OVO?

  • 31 December 2018
  • 12 replies
  • 16703 views

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My contract with Scottish Power is coming to an end and I'm looking at switching to OVO or to First Utility (who are a bit cheaper). I have smart meters (Secure Liberty 100) installed by First Utility when I was with them previously. They are currently functioning as dumb meters.

Astonishingly, First Utility have advised me that if I switch to them, there is no way they can make my meters smart again (except replacing them).

Will the meters become smart again if I switch to OVO?

Thank you

 

12 replies

G
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Userlevel 1
I am considering moving across from my current supplier to OVO, but only if OVO can onboard my smart meter (currently dormant).
The meter vendor is Secure Meters, model Liberty 100, fitted originally by First Utility.
I am assuming First Utility and OVO must both use Secure Meters as their SMSO.

If onboarding my meter is possible, then would OVO be able to provide a new Chameleon IHD as well? I am particularly interested in restoring the "smart" capabilities of my meter, and using a new IHD to keep an eye on energy usage.

Has someone successfully transitioned their Liberty 100 meter to OVO?

Many thanks,
Gustavo
Tim_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Updated on 10/07/24 by Abby_OVO

 

Good news- All first generation smart meters will be upgraded to second generation, this means they will be compatible with all suppliers. Find out more about this topic in this helpful FAQ here:

 

 

OVO can communicate with Secure smart meters. The specific meter models we support  are electricity Secure Liberty 100 and 110,  gas Secure Liberty EG4v10 smart meters and any SMETS2 smart meter.

The suppliers listed below (taken from this topic) should still be able to communicate with your Secure smart meters, but you may need to check with them directly:

Utilita Energy Limited
Co-operative Energy Ltd
First Utility Ltd
Electricity Plus Supply Ltd t/a The Utility Warehouse
E (Gas & Electricity)
Spark Energy Supply Limited
Eversmart Energy Ltd
EON Energy
Robin Hood Energy Limited
Ecotricity
Bristol Energy
Our Power Energy Supply Ltd
Octopus Energy

These Secure smart meters are in the process of being remotely upgraded giving the same functionality as S2 smart meters. All Secure meters should be upgraded by March 2022, more info on this process here.

 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Darran_OVO
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Hey @gustavo I've moved your question here as I think Tim's answer above should answer your question.

Darran
Did a reply solve your question? Then mark it as the correct answer!
Transparent
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Well, I'm as puzzled as you are @Tim_OVO .

When a customer with a Smart Meter transfers to another Supplier, the meter gets updated with the new tariff information. This is purely so that it can be displayed correctly in the house IHD.

But there seems no point in actually replacing hardware which is perfectly functional and has a compatible version of the SMETS1 software installed.

If I were in your position, @tjfs I would now be moving to the Supplier who makes the clearest commitment to upgrade your existing Smart Meter to the latest SMETS2 software. This should happen within the next 12 months, and provides additional functionality, besides giving you inter-compatibility between all Suppliers for future switching.

Please ask if you'd like further clarification of this.
Save energy... recycle electrons!
I
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I already have a Smart Meter supplied by my previous supplier. Can OVO still make use of this.
Eva_OVO
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Userlevel 5
I already have a Smart Meter supplied by my previous supplier. Can OVO still make use of this.

Take a look at Tim's bast answer, if one of these suppliers installed the meter we'll be able to communicate with it! 🙂
My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt!
M
Rank
I have a smart meter in the house I just moved into I dont know from which company can ovo connect to this meter or do I have to have meter from ovo if so does that mean this house is just gonna start a collection of energy meters from different suppliers
Eva_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 5
I have a smart meter in the house I just moved into I dont know from which company can ovo connect to this meter or do I have to have meter from ovo if so does that mean this house is just gonna start a collection of energy meters from different suppliers

It sounds like you're talking about the In Home Display (IHD), @Menz78, that't he handheld device connected to the meters.

Here's a list of suppliers who can communicate with our meters, as long as yours is working fine - you can continue to use it! 🙂
My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt!
K
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I want tomove to ovo but will my shell energy smart meters work

Eva_OVO
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Userlevel 5

Take a look at the best answer, @Karl, there’s a list of suppliers meters we can communicate with. 

 

If you’ve got SMETS2 meters they’ll work with us! :)

My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt!
aaroncarson
Rank

Hello lovely people!

Moving my flat over to OVO next month as Acasa unfortunately collapsed, thus moving me over to Glide and therefore OVO.

Looking forward to it however as the online dashboard of energy usage looks awesome!

My only concern however - what if I can’t make use of it!? Shock, horror!

The smart meter installed by the previous tenants before I switched to Octopus is an EDF SMETS1 Aclara / GE SGM1411. This doesn’t work with Octopus, but the IHD still happily shows usage.

Seems like I have a very unique situation (somehow?!) as I tried to scour the forum yet sadly failed.

I like to think I’m pretty clued up on this kinda thing, but you folks seem a lot more so so may be able to confirm if the DCC has been set up at all yet?

If not, maybe some Raspberry Pi computer vision program to read the IHD display constantly and sling it into Grafana will do. Nice side project for the lockdown I suppose. (you know what...🤔) Or even, does anyone have any experience trying to hook into the HAN’s Zigbee network?

Thanks! 😀

Transparent
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Hi @aaroncarson and welcome to the Forum

The list of Energy Companies whose SMETS1 meters are compatible with OVO’s is in the Best Answer on this Topic.

As I believe these companies all fitted meters made by Secure, I don’t expect your Aclara unit to work until it receives the nationwide upgrade to SMETS2 functionality later this year. Only at that point can you be joined to the National Smart Meter Network operated by DCC.

Yes, it’s most often the case that the IHD continues to operate, but the prices won’t tally because your correct tariff data won’t have been downloaded into your Communications Hub.

You can’t simply attach a home-built device into the HAN. For security reasons, only your Energy Supplier can open the link to permit a new device to be recognised.

The solution is to ensure your new IHD is of the CAD variety, which also transmits data output across WiFi.

And that point you can start doing all sorts of interesting things with a Raspberry-Pi.

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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