Hello,

I hope that this is helpful for others in the “north”…

...It took 6 engineer visits, but eventually the comms to my smart meter is now working. I posted details here:

https://homeeneryefficiencyukreallife.blogspot.com/2024/09/smart-meter-3-my-smart-meter-journey.html

A neighbour was having problems with his smart meter comms; Ovo is his supplier and had made several visits to try to get it working. He shared the above link and the solution also worked for him.

It would be interesting to hear if this works for others.

Best regards

Dave

​@daveharding Thanks very much for that informative link. Success stories are always good reading!

​@Bradley_OVO Can we make sure everyone involved is aware of this possibility? I keep mentioning it in situations when it looks like it might help, but we rarely hear any feedback.

Agree with ​@Firedog - ​@daveharding We love a good success story around here and this one is very exciting!

Yes ​@Firedog - I’ll pass this on internally to the Smart Operations team and beyond! Thanks for the flag 👍

Hi ​@Bradley_OVO,

Thank you for your kind response. 

I am intrigued that this option is not already widely known at Ovo/with Ovo customers in the “North”. I just stumbled upon another Ovo forum post:

• “S2 smart meters in the Northern Territory using the Arqiva network - why isn't the meter able to connect to the WAN?”

In the discussion one customer reported that the standard FL100 cable length did not work, but the customer/installer was able to extend the cable further and get the comms working.

Surely Ovo could save a tonne of money by having the FL100 as part of the standard install kit/process where comms does not work 1st time.

How many engineer visits would that save?

How much does each engineer visit cost Ovo?

Why not roll out the extended cable length solution and make Ovo the go to supplier in the “North” (for people with EV’s, solar, etc)?

Just my thoughts

Dave

​@daveharding Great points and I agree, a lot to be achieved and streamlined for all involved.

I’ve forwarded this on to a few stakeholders that work within the engineering and smart metering areas of the business to see if this can be of assistance to us. 

I’ll respond here if I hear anything back 😊

Hello, my smart meter signal comes from winter hill also. Where is your property? 

Hi,

How do you find out where the base station is located? None of the engineers who visited me knew where the base station is…

...it strikes me that if this information were publicly available then it would help engineers optimise signal strength.

...have you found where the North Region base station location information is published?

As it happens we live not far from Winter Hill, but not in line of sight.

Best regards

Dave

DCC doesn’t like giving that information out for security reasons. All we can say is that their equipment is on most of the main towers in the Northern Territory and that line of sight is not required.

… with great difficulty!

The location of the SMWAN antennae  seems to be a closely guarded secret, but apparently Arqiva mount them on some of their TV transmission towers. It’s likely that there will be one on each of the towers north of Manchester on this map, but whether that includes Winter Hill and/or Emley Moor is anyone’s guess. The boundary between the Northern CSP and the Central and Southern CSP regions is necessarily fluid, and we’ve heard of customers in Lancashire who couldn’t connect to the Arquiva (LRR) network but could to the O2 (cellular) one. To frustrate detection still more, a particular property’s TV aerial may well be pointing towards a different repeater mast closer than the nearest full-fat one, but there’s not likely to be a WAN antenna on that mast.

We’ve also heard of otherwise dodgy connections being secured simply by shifting the communications hub a metre up, down or sideways by means of a flying lead - that’s all it takes in some situations.

Just an update to say the electricity meter has been diagnosed “faulty” and has been replaced.

The long range radio communications module has also been replaced with a “mesh” communications module.

The electricity meter appears to be working correctly ie “in smart mode” but the gas meter for whatever reason will not connect to the HAN.

Thanks