Smart meter not communicating with storage heater & immersion heater circuit

​@Firedog so an OVO customer who's been left (I say left, abandoned is probably a better term) with issues following a smart meter install has to contact a knowledgeable volunteer, learn how the tariff and meter configuration works, then get instruction from the volunteer to pass to the support team to resolve the issue. 

There's clearly serious issues with OVO support for complex meter installations, especially following the installation. Other suppliers are also having similar issues, but the frustration is OVO have all this information at hand but no-one is closing the loop from resolution to learning the lessons. 

It's good to see this being resolved but it should never have got to this stage in the first place.

I’ve been banging a drum for a long time about the lack of advice available to those being migrated from one kind of tariff to another in connection with the RTS shutdown. The problem is probably most evident in Northern Scotland, where Scottish Hydro’s old THTC scheme has no parallel in the smart meter universe. You point to post-installation issues, but advice is also needed long before the meter exchange as bewildered customers have to decide what sort of arrangement best suits their own unique heating equipment installations. 

Before SSE’s customers were shuffled off to OVO, the supplier had a department full of complex metering system experts able to provide the advice customers needed. To my knowledge, that sort of department no longer exists, and while there may be others I don’t know about, this forum is for many the only source of guidance for RTS refugees. 

If you can't make a difference with one foot in the door at OVO I guess there's little hope! I'm part of a FB group for THTC customers, it's been running for a couple of years now and it was set up to help customers given the desperate lack of available information and advice. It's generally N & NW Scotland customers and predominantly OVO customers. The group shares experiences and information, but if the install is complex or the issue becomes very technical and they're OVO customers I'll suggest they post their issue on here 🙂

You're quite right that customers are feeling bewildered long before the install, for many customers they been on THTC for decades and never even considered changing supplier, they're possibly elderly and don't understand how their existing setup works, and all of a sudden they're being forced into a new world of high tech kit, tariff choices and a looming deadline - which after publicly declaring for months 'the end of the world is nigh', it now seems they've come up with a plan to help suppliers plough through the remaining changeouts.

In my view THTC has been continually kicked into the long grass by Ofgem and the main suppliers, when installed it had huge benefits (£) for the Hydro Board, and customers (largely council and housing associations) were incentivised to sign up to the attractive tariffs, the more customers, the more peak load control this gave the Hydro. 

So major benefits for the supplier when they installed THTC, replacing THTC is just a pure cost up front for suppliers, probably another reason it's been ignored. As a tariff in the modern erratic energy market it clearly no longer works for suppliers.

But we are where we are! This particular case just highlighted what some customers are trying to deal with, when you take a step back and look at what's happening, the level of understanding the customer now needs to move this case forward just seems ludicrous! 

Completely agree that the volunteers on this forum are a huge helpful resource for customers, it's just a shame the learnings don't appear to be getting integrated back into the support team. Given the CEO's recent interview and his plan to focus on delivering excellent customer service, I'll maybe dig out his email address 😉

Hey ​@Firedog & ​@Infiltrator, 

Our forums are open to everyone, not just OVO customers, providing a platform for peer-to-peer support regardless of energy supplier. We do, however, moderate discussions to ensure accuracy and prevent misinformation, a contrast to the often unmoderated content found on platforms like Facebook.

While most installations are straightforward, our engineers sometimes encounter complex setups. A small number of these require ongoing fixes, such as the Alt-Han installs that were temporarily paused due to an earthing safety recall.

We have a dedicated team specializing in multi-rate or "exotic" metering types who can offer limited advice. We also have a general understanding of other RTS systems like storage heaters and immersion tanks, but for troubleshooting, the expertise of boiler technicians or engineers is essential.

We are continuously looking for ways to assist customers transitioning to newer tariffs and meters to prevent service interruptions. If there are specific areas where you'd like to see more support, we are open to collaborating on customer-facing articles, similar to the RTS article created with Blastoise.

I hope this helps and if you’ve any questions, please shout out! 

Thanks for the response Chris, you did say if we’ve any other questions, so..

Why has this install and support follow up gone so badly?

Just to recap,

• customer left without heating and hot water following smart meter install, would you agree this isn’t acceptable?

• initial support seemed to believe the issue wasn’t related to the meter install and suggested the customer engage an electrician (at their cost) to investigate the error, electrician find no issues with the domestic wiring, acceptable? 
• customer, out of frustration with support responses, engages the assistance of the volunteers on the customer to understand how the meter and tariffs are configured so they can advise support what action is required, as I mentioned above, this seems ludicrous.

Please don’t think I’m just OVO bashing, many cases on here are one’s that I’ve suggested our FB group members should seek technical help with to resolve, and the vast majority get sorted quickly, this case has just frustrated me. No-one in OVO support seems to have taken ownership of the issue and I believe it still hasn’t been progressed. Possibly the complex meter team should be more involved, and take ownership till completion with THTC support cases?

Like others on here, myself and the other members on our FB group are just keen to help customers get through this change as smoothly and as efficiently as possible.

On a positive note, on our group we see issues from most suppliers, and personally I’d say OVO have probably been the most organised, we don’t hear much from SP which could be a positive, but some of the others really haven’t covered themselves with glory.      

Hey ​@Infiltrator,
 

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on this, it’s clear you’re speaking from experience, and I’m really sorry that both you and others have found yourselves stuck in these frustrating situations.
 

You’re absolutely right, we should be doing better at recognising when an issue is meter-related rather than wiring-related, especially before asking customers to spend their own money on electricians unnecessarily. It’s unacceptable that some members of the community are left without clear guidance, or even worse, without heating or hot water, while we try to pin down the right solution.
 

I completely understand your concern about the reliance on external engineers for relatively straightforward configuration fixes that could, in many cases, be handled remotely. It’s something we’ve raised internally, and will continue to push for better processes, clearer communication, and more consistent advice across the board. Your feedback really helps highlight just how much this matters.

Apologies again for the stress this has caused, please rest assured your voice is being heard, and I’m sharing this with the relevant teams.

Thank you for being such a supportive and constructive part of the forum! 🙂

I’m not certain, but I suspect that this is unavoidable in some cases. For example, a simple Economy 7 installation requires that - among many others - requests to set the tariff switching table to the appropriate E7 timings and to set the ALCS calendar to the same timings have to be sent. While the engineer on site may get success notifications, the proof of the pudding is in the heating (sorry!), and that won’t happen until around midnight that night. Even if the engineer did get the storage heating equipment connected to the right supply, if the meter hasn’t received and stored the right settings, it’s possible that that equipment doesn’t get charging power when it’s supposed to. So long as the meter is communicating with the mothership, it should be a simple matter for support to arrange for the appropriate requests to be sent again. 

So, short of keeping the engineer on site until after midnight, the customer may just have to accept a night or two without that heating.
 

I'm sure there's probably a better solution, yes you've got an unhappy customer on your hands, but OVO are engaging a sub contract meter engineer and flying them to Shetland at short notice, the return flight on its own is £700, possibly overnight accommodation, you're probably looking at something like £2k to return to a meter installed a few days previously. OVO are not alone, this is probably the 4th such return to a smart meter in Shetland I've read about recently! 

​@Emmanuelle_OVO ​@Firedog thanks for the reply Emmanuelle and taking time to consider and share the points raised. 

I also note that Ofgem have announced today that suppliers need to introduce a dedicated enquiry service for RTS customers, probably a year late but better late than never!

Hello ​@Emmanuelle_OVO & ​@Chris_OVO 

It is me that is inconvenienced, frustrated and very weary of all of this.

​@Infiltrator, ​@Firedog & ​@Blastoise186 are completely spot on with their remarks. I appreciate these volunteers/community members ‘having my back’ and recognising the stress and inconvenience this whole debacle is causing. I certainly have gained a lot more insight of the issues I’m experiencing and am passing this information on to all my affected neighbours. It’s just a shame that we have to gather this knowledge through these channels.

As for support from OVO customer care, I’m now sitting at week 5 of no resolution and not even a response to my email from a week ago regarding the possible solution to my issue as outlined in this thread (apart from the automated ‘we are on the case’ response). Nor have I had an email confirming my new contract. I am still sitting with my meter set up not being aligned. to recap, my heating is switching on at my new plan times (E10- hurrah!), but the off peak/peak ‘Tariff Switching Table’ is still sitting in the wrong configuration (Region Specific - not acceptable as all the heating/hot water is being manly charged at peak rate!). I have resorted to switching everything off unless absolutely necessary, until such time I get the correct set up.

And by the way, it is not a new or isolated issue, as many, many other customers on this forum (and other platforms) are having similar problems, too (some of the posts are from a year or more ago). So where is this dedicated team specialising in ‘exotic metering’ and how do affected customer get better directed/connected? It should not be that difficult/time-consuming to get connected to the appropriate department with the correct expertise. 

Off the phone with OVO again just now, trying to find out why/how nothing is being done still. It’s a bit of a lottery when customers call to get someone who will direct you correctly. I fully appreciate there is no one size fits all solution BUT I shouldn’t have to be left to chase this up repeatedly. OVO knows there is an issue here, so surely someone should follow it all the way through to its conclusion, whatever this may need. Apparently I will now get a call back on Monday, as this is being looked into…? Now if I hadn’t rang again, would this be the case as I have had no communication to advise otherwise.

I just want someone who knows what they are doing to assure me that my ‘smart’ meter is going to work as it should and be able to trust that I’m not being charged incorrectly and having to constantly monitor this. All this affecting my home and work life, with having to worry and the time I’m having to spend dealing with this.