Smart meter reporting and electric meter do not match

OK. Any support agent should be able to call up a meter reading, so you don’t have to wait for someone to respond to your written enquiry - a phone call or webchat should get it done in minutes. Then at least you’d know where the fault is coming from. 

OK. You have a dual-rate meter, recording peak and offpeak usage on registers labelled T01 and T02. If you’re also on a dual-rate tariff, i.e. with different rates for peak and offpeak use, something’s still not right! T01 (the first register tier) should be for peak usage, T02 for offpeak. Dual-rate tariffs only really make sense for customers with more than about 1/3 of their consumption during offpeak hours; you’re around the 28% mark.

If the tariff is only single-rate (peak and offpeak at the same price), this is irrelevant. If this is the case, though, I’m afraid you may have picked the most expensive form of heating there is. 

Have a really good look at your online account - there’s all sorts of information there to help you work out how everything works. One thing to check is that the account is set to record half-hourly usage; this helps you to work out just where and when all that energy is being consumed. 

What water heater and electric heaters do you have ? Can you post photos of them ?

Despite the meter serial number matching my account, something definitely seems to be wrong with my smart meter. I did not use heating yesterday at all but did on Tuesday. Yet it reported my usage yesterday as being higher. It also reports surges of electricity in the early hours of the night when everything is turned off - my water heater only comes on at 7.30am.
 

I now believe the smart meter is either faulty or linking to another address, this would also make sense why the readings do not match my physical meter display - odd though as all the serials are correct.

An immersion heater is often rated at 3 kW. If it was firing up at 07:30, you would certainly see a spike in the 07:30-08:00 slot, but you don’t.

The meter that is returning those half-hourly data seems to be working as expected. It’s thus becoming increasingly apparent that it’s not the meter on your wall, but a different one. That’s why it would be a good idea to ask OVO to take a meter reading while you’re talking to them. You could even be on your mobile phone at your meter looking at the readings at the same time, so you’d both see the discrepancy.

You haven’t, I think, told us where you live. The Distribution Network Operator (DNO) is the one responsible for the supply to your apartment and all the others in the same development. The supply has a unique ID, commonly called its MPAN, which you should be able to find on the account page I referred you to earlier: Edit meter reads frequency - OVO Energy. The first two digits are the code for your DNO, which should correspond with the info in this graphic:
  

   
If you call your DNO, they should be able to tell you what meter number is associated with your MPAN or perhaps vice-versa, if there’s a mix-up somewhere. The MPAN is set in stone for the most part, while meters come and go. 

​@oaashy1411 have you followed my advice?:

I’d recommend replying back to the advisor and requesting that a complaint be logged, if one hasn’t been already. You’ll then be provided with a complaints reference number, and this should speed up the process of this being sorted.

 

The fact that the reads on the meter don’t line up with the bill is definitely grounds for a complaint - the advisor should have logged one when they picked this up.

 

Please keep us updated as to how you get on.

Please let me know how you get on. This needs to be logged as a complaint so that it sits in the right area and is looked at by someone with experience.

This is one of those instances where we can only speculate on the Forum as to what could be the problem. I can think of a few things, but this needs to be looked at directly.

Update on this case:

I raised it as a complaint last week. On a phone call from OVO, they stated they would send an engineer to look at the issue on Friday 12 December. I have just had a visit, the person they actually sent was a meter reader rather than an engineer.

He unfortunately did not know how to take dual rate readings and instead took the single rate reading on the electric meter. I tried to show him that the smart meter was reporting significantly lower figures than what the actual meter showed by showing him my app, but he did not know any sort of fix other than to say “We have lots of problems with the MA120” and “they don’t care in these new builds as long as you sign the dotted line”.

I am now very concerned due to the manual reading that was taken that my reading history will jump significantly - due to the manual reading being significantly higher than what the smart meter is reporting.

Latest reading update as follows:

Manual reading taken today:  3837

Smart meter readings sent automatically: 1778 (peak) 759 (off peak) - or 2537 total.

I have sent an updated complaint email to OVO, however I am losing confidence in their customer service compared to providers who have been great in the past like Octopus.

I am really hoping their team understand the issue but it feels like something that could go to the Ombudsman eventually.

Sometimes, OVO’s complaints system works very well and seemingly intractable problems are solved to everyone’s satisfaction. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t. If it looks as if the Ombudsman might get involved (if the complaint remains unresolved eight weeks after submission), it’s vital to retain all the evidence of your dealings with OVO’s customer service. That means photos of meter readings, say, and transcripts of conversations with the various agents. The Ombudsman doesn’t investigate - he just listens to the evidence the two parties present and then decides which to favour. 

I’m not sure what a visiting engineer is supposed to do that you can’t do yourself - stand at the meter with your phone, call OVO (perhaps your complaint handler) and ask for meter readings to be taken. Take photos of the readings you see - being sure to include the MSN in the photos - and you should have incontrovertible evidence of what looks like an unusual crossed-meter situation (it’s unusual because the MSNs you’re seeing and OVO are seeing are the same, but the readings are different). 

Did you ask your DNO to check the MSN associated with your MPAN? They might say initially ‘ask your supplier’, but if you explain the situation, they should take pity on you and tell you what their own records say. 
 

[I’m still scratching my head at the idea of a professional meter reader who doesn’t know how to take meter readings ...] 

I assumed my DNO would be Electricity North West as the property is in Salford… However they do not recognise my post code. When I check via the Energy Networks Association, it lists my post code DNO as Last Mile Asset Management… I’m assuming this is because it’s a new build. I’ll email them and see if they get in touch.

You’re getting somewhere! It looks as if the claim that “utilities have been handed over from the developer” might have been a bit premature. In your shoes, I’d contact LMAM and ask them to check which assets they’re managing (or failing to manage) for your property. There might be a water meter somewhere, too. There will have been a developer’s plot number or similar for the property before you took over - do you know what it was?

I don’t know whether this will help you make contact with them:
  

That’s very interesting as my water provider is Icosa Water (which is owned/operated by Last Mile). When I registered with Icosa they had my address details correct but instead of Apartment 307, they had Plot 307 instead as well as a slightly different post code associated with the plot number rather than the newly assigned post code… They had also registered my water meter number slightly wrong (a mismatch of two letters) by accident.

So I suspect something similar has happened (though OVO have my address correct).

I’ve emailed Last Mile to check the meter serial and MPAN I have listed with OVO matches their records.