Third-party access to smart meter data: recent failures

Hello everyone - to confirm, the energy supplier gets the data from the Aclara meters just fine - but the DCC Other User role (which is what Hildebrand, n3rgy and CGI carry) cannot get the data for a subset of meters. Some come back and start reporting - and we aren’t sure why.

DCC and the meter manufacturer continue with their investigations; and we keep checking in on their progress.

Thanks for the info Jane. 

Its not a great look for such an important organisation thats housing all of our data. 

OK, thanks. The first suggestion would be to remove the various accounts altogether, and possibly uninstall the apps so long as there aren’t any data there you haven’t salted away safely. Then re-install and set up the account again. There’s some indication that existing accounts that have lost communication to the meter don’t get it back again unless the app is required to start again from scratch.

The support staff are usually helpful; I’ve had sterling service from both Bright and Hugo. n3rgy appear to have gone off in a huff and aren’t accepting new accounts, possibly explained by this rant: (11) Consumer Consent Calamity | LinkedIn  

I only setup Bright today after reading about it on here and it’s returned the exact same last update date as the other apps. It’s not an app issue, it’s the data getting to the DCC as per the above. 
 

I’ve also had excellent comms from both loop and Hugo - it’s just OVO themselves that seem clueless (although I think they were being purposefully “clueless” to buy themselves extra time as it is clearly a known issue to both OVO staff and the DCC staff). 
 

This is after having an issue about 2 years ago with the gas meter not sending readings to OVO and not one person anywhere could figure it out. They resorted to ripping the meter out and replacing it. 
 

I’m a technical engineer, so this type of incompetence is extremely frustrating. 

I don’t think OVO are at fault here. Access to your data on the meter is controlled exclusively by DCC, and OVO have no part to play. They are aware of the problems faced by some customers having difficulty retrieving data via third parties, but there’s nothing they can do other than tell DCC about the unhappy customers. Not incompetence, but impotence. Be grateful that Jane and Clive from Bright and Aclara’s engineers are keeping the pressure up on DCC to get the system working again.  

While I concur that OVO may not be entirely responsible for the issue, they must assume accountability for the situation. Customers are advised to contact their supplier, who should then engage in direct communication with the DCC.

This process should not be overly complex. My issue has persisted for more than six months without any resolution in sight.

It is important to note that I am deeply appreciative of Jane and the team’s efforts in providing information. However, OVO has proven to be utterly ineffective in addressing my concerns. 

I think you’ve made the point here .. if OVO are getting your usage readings then they have (almost) no interest in access by third parties. 
All suppliers - as far as I’m aware - also don’t get their data directly from DCC but use another organisation as an accumulator to get what they require to enable operation and billing. So I’m not surprised that support staff as generally not aware of DCC. 
Add to that, neither the meter manufacturers nor DCC fully understand why the situation exists for some customers and so it has been down to the third parties themselves to try to figure out and get something done. 
This also has affected a number of different suppliers .. I myself had the problem however I am not supplied by OVO. 

Hello all,

This situation is nothing to do with OVO at all - other than the fact that they host the forum where the topic is under discussion. The only entities that can (potentially) resolve it are the DCC and the meter manufacturer. They are working on it but it feels as though the root cause is still unknown.

While I’m here, it is also really important to appreciate that the DCC are not the data repository, your energy meters are the data repository. The DCC are the secure conduit to that data.

The meters in question, and they are only a small subset of all that type of meter, are not responding to a request to return their readings from a DCC Other User (Hugo sub-contract n3rgy’s service who are the Other User for them). Then, for no apparent reason, we see some of them recovering.

The good news is 1) I don’t believe we’ve seen any new meters in this state since June, and 2) there is investigation underway (sometimes it takes a very long time to get to that point).

This is happening to me.  Roughly a month ago the Electricity data stopped showing up in loop.homes app.  The Gas readings are fine in Loop, and both are fine according to Ovo.

My meter is an Aclara SGM 1411-B, and the first 2 digit of the MPAN are “19”.

Is this something Ovo can help with?

Hi, if you’ve read the post above yours you will see that the situation described in this thread is nothing to do with any supplier but one needing intervention from DCC who are a central router for all data.

Of course, your own situation might be different and so asking customer support to check your meter connection might be a good first step. My own situation was solved by a meter software update.

If you are missing data just in Loop, it would be worth asking them.

Thanks

• Loop say “your supplier should fix this problem if you report it to them”
  • https://kb.loop.homes/why-am-i-only-seeing-data-for-gas-or-electricity-but-not-both#:~:text=There%20may%20be,it%20to%20them. 
• I’ll raise this with Ovo tomorrow 
• If that doesn’t work, it looks like I can email DCC directly - https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/customer-service-centre/

Short answer: No.

Loop have made big changes to their data retrieval processes starting on 28 March, and it appears that not all users are unaffected by the change. It should help to remove the Loop app, then re-install and set up a new account.
  

Many of us used Loop or Hugo or both, primarily as middlemen to getting data from n3rgy. Loop have stopped using n3rgy since their takeover by Procode, and Hugo have shut down their free offering, so no n3rgy data.

I tried this morning signing up with Equiwatt. The process was quicker and simpler than with either of the others, requiring only the MPAN and the last quartet of the IHD GUID. Once confirmed, the new relationship was recorded almost immediately by n3rgy and my data were again available from there.   

Hello everyone,

This is Jane at Hildebrand - we offer the Bright App and the glowforhomes.com sites.

Unfortunately it looks as though the Aclara meter problem has started again - we’ve a number of customers whose electricity data stopped around 20/21 May.

We are in discussions with the DCC to see if they can identify what might have triggered this.

Best,

Jane

Hey, thanks for the heads up ​@JaneatGlow !

Keep us posted just in case you have any news. By the way, did DCC ever fix that Trilliant issue?

Please, that Trilliant issue… Between that one and Aclara I shall feel very discouraged! Talk is that they are making progress on agreeing with Trilliant a plan for remediation…. I suspect that will take as long as the meters being replaced anyway as they are at end of life (sorry to be a cynic!).

Haha, I KNEW you’d say that somehow…

And yeah, it’s not just you - I absolutely hate the Trilliant hubs as well because they’re so poorly documented. I’m just glad I run on an S2 Aclara with a WNC SKU1 hub that’s worked to perfection since 2021.

But you’re probably right. Given the migration to 4G, it’s unlikely those units will survive the migration process anyway. I still don’t know how they’ll deal with S1 at all!

Hey ​@JaneatGlow,

Thanks for stopping by with an update for the thread! It sounds like you’re being kept busy with things on your end 😊

Always busy - but pleased to also help in your world as this is not a supplier issue…. ! Waiting to hear back from the DCC now. Nice to hear from you ​@Chris_OVO - thanks for checking in :)

Thanks for the note, Jane. It looks as though this problem was shorter-lived than last year’s - my data started coming through again today, and I currently have a full set of figures from 02:00 BST on 29 May (to 15:30 today - just an hour ago!).

I’ll keep an eye out for the missing data from 18 to 29 May, but I’m not too concerned as I have the data from other sources. 

An update : the recent Aclara meter issue was a different one and has been resolved. Unfortunately the one from last year, that still affects several hundred people, remains open.

Thanks for the update ​@JaneatGlow 🙂

Thanks, Jane. Having said I wasn’t concerned about the missing data from during the outage, I see that the empty slots have all been refilled. Thanks to your conscientious and effective techs for getting this sorted out 🙇‍♂️

cc @JaneatGlow

Quick update from me - my electricity data has started appearing in the Glow Bright app  - from April 27th 2025 after being missing since 19th March 2024.

It is still missing from Loop however, and I cant get access to N3rgys consumer site anymore to check - i’ve mailed n3rgy them to query it.

Good to hear. Glowmarkt get there eventually!

That’s because Loop jumped ship - their new parent Procode has its own DCC adapter, just like Glowmarkt, so they’re no longer using n3rgy. Unless you sign up with another n3rgy partner (I use Equiwatt), you won’t be able to access your data via data.n3rgy.com any more.  

Just to say I am one of those “several hundred people” still affected by the original issue had no electricity reading for roughly 18 months now :(

Definitely one of those “how hard can it be” issues - surely