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Over the last 6 months I have been carefully following the various Forum threads regarding the (now delayed) RTS shutdown and the consequential loss of the THTC tariff. To date I have had no information directly from SSE (soon to be OVO).  When I called the SSE Specialist Heating Team was I assured by someone  that my supply is not in jeopardy and that a technical solution is awaited to allow a SMART meter installation, but no timescale was given. Nor was there any acknowledgment that the lack of  network coverage in my area (NW Sutherland)  had previously precluded fitting  a SMART meter anyway.

 The main reason for trying to get concrete information revolves around my intention to upgrade my old storage heaters to more energy efficient models which are also controllable remotely. As I understand it the modern heaters work best on Economy 7 or 10 (if available) tariffs which means if I want ultimately to save money, I  need to change from the current  THTC meter. 

Does anyone have any up to date information or is it still a case of wait and hope?

Hi @ColinC ,

I’ve seen the solution that’s being developed and from my understanding, it’ll be a pretty much drop-in replacement for your current setup once it’s ready, albeit with one meter rather than two. It needs a bit more work yet though.

If the RTS Service shuts down before it’s ready, your THTC Meter will run with a static timeswitch to prevent loss of supply. The difference being that it’ll run using the last known schedule and will no longer be dynamic in when the relays get switched on and off.

Thanks Blastoise186.

The fact that the RTS might be switched off before a fix is in place still worries me more than a little. Presumably you mean that running as a static time-switch would  mean that the storeage/water  heaters would come on at set Off Peak times rather than variable as with THTC? This would obviously be on a different tariff. My added complication is that the house is a holiday home and not occupied all the time over the winter period to constantly monitor the supply.

Hopefully a solution will be found, but in the meantime a little clarity and up to date information directly from SSE/OVO would not go amiss. Anecdotally, some of my neighbours on THTC are blissfully unaware of any of this.

Updated on 29/08/24 by Abby_OVO

 

Update on RTS shutdown:

 

As part of the RTS Project development, we are really happy to share with you our progress:

 

As you may be aware, the RTS signal that instructs some of our meters when to move to the “Off Peak Period”  will be closing down soon and we need to arrange for all of our RTS customers to have a meter exchange so they don’t lose any of their meter functionality.

 

The RTS signal will end for our customers on 30 June 2025. The period between 1 July - 30 September 2025 will then be used to close-down the RTS signal and allow us to manage any unexpected customers impacted.

 

After a very successful pilot, from the 17th June 2024 we will begin writing to our Economy 10 RTS customers to invite them to call us to arrange for their meter exchange. 

 

We are continuing to work at pace to enable the same solution for the majority of our other RTS customers and our aim is to begin writing to these customers in Aug 2024. 

 

We will continue to update you on our progress.

 

That’s right, yes. You’d still get the heaters coming on and off if RTS dies, but it would be at fixed times.

All suppliers will contact customers once a solution is ready and this includes OVO. SSE probably won’t be contacting as many people from here though as the original plan had, as the SSE to OVO Migration is progressing at a fast pace. But either way, both yourself and your neighbours will be kept in the loop

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