Unexplained half-hourly usage pattern

I’m getting a little tired of Ovo telling me that they are charging my Mother for her usage..

This is a message from Ovo..  “Your mom uses more electricity hence that could be a reason behind the high usage as we are not over charging her. Our readings are accurate.”

My response was… “My 88 year old Mother lives alone... and you have her down as using 13000 KWH+ per annum....and I am still waiting for an answer to the question of ZERO usage from exactly midnight to exactly 07:00am each day.. zero, nothing, nil...how can that be accurate ?

Ovo response to that summary page image..  “Your mom is on a single rate”

My response “and is that the answer as to why there is ZERO usage between midnight and 7:00am each day... ?? and why a single 88 year old is being charged over 3500 pounds per year”

thanks for chipping in ​@Peter E ….  my Mum’s house is freezing !!  the electric water heater has been switched off for years.. she has no electric central heating.. I guess I keep coming back to the images that show ZERO usage from Midnight to 7:00am each day.

The comment that ​@Nukecad made could be valid as the graph can display erroneous values without real data to base it on. It’s the smart readings page that is important. They will show you if smart readings are being taken and what the values actually were. As I no longer have an OVO account I can't help you in locating the smart readings data page. If the  readings are estimated then the whole graph is a fiction and there is no knowing what that is based on. I've had that problem myself.

Peter

​@rogerp64 Thanks for the photos and the other details. 

I agree with ​@Peter E. It would be really interesting to see the meter readings from before April 2025 and - ideally - to date. You remarked earlier that All readings are “Smart”, but we don’t know whether that applies to the period before the new meter was installed in ‘early March 2026’. 

If for some reason half-hourly usage data aren’t being retrieved from the meter, the website will simulate the missing data using (to me!) completely impenetrable logic. So even though meter readings are getting through, the graphs on the Usage pages may be complete fabrications. 
  

  
Your remarks about the replies you’ve had from Support make distressing reading. My own experience of the special staff who respond when someone on the Priority Services Register contacts Support has been limited, but in every case, the respondent has been courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. I assumed - since you have access to mother’s account - that OVO know you’re acting for a vulnerable relative, so I wonder why you’ve been getting apparently unhelpful responses.  

On her account’s Profile page, you should see details like name, address, email address and phone number. I’m not certain how your details would appear on this page, but I think they ought to be there. Perhaps ​@Ben_OVO could tell us. What is vital, though, is that any contact with support starts from a recorded email address or phone number - that’s how enquiries get routed to the right people. I prefer to use the chat options, so that I get a written record of the conversation.

And incidentally, on the same profile page, you should see an option called Set how often meter readings send. You might want to check the settings there. 

To double check that the smart meter is sending readings, when you log into the app in the bottom menu bar is an option marked “Usage”. Tap through to that, and under the graph that pops up is a box marked “Meter Readings”. Tap on that, and on the next screen you’ll see your meter details for electricity and/or gas (as applicable), and within each box you can tap on “View Reading History” to see all the readings and it will tell you for each reading if it was a Smart reading, or if it was estimated.

​@woodstok2000 Smart reader installed 11th March this year. Every day shows ‘Smart’

Thanks ​@Firedog Smart reader wa installed March 11 this year. All readings prior would have been manual. 
 

I will see what I can find on previous usage for Mum. I know that I inadvertently cancelled her plan, when I noticed a huge jump in the monthly costs. I received a £3000 refund, I contacted Ovo to say that I hadn’t expected a refund and I have since repaid the money. 
 

Now I am wondering if the refund was based on overpayment in 2022, 2023, etc. I will get my forensic kit on and start to dig. 
 

** the zero usage between Midnight and 7:00 still remains a mystery to us all. Ovo telling me that the meter readings are ‘accurate’ is the major gripe I have. How can they be accurate if there is zero use for 7 hours a day?for those hours every night suggesting that my Mum has flicked the main circuit breaker exactly at midnight and waits until 7:00am each morning to turn it back on? (1. The circuit board is out of reach, even for me, 2. Mum hasn’t been awake at 07:00 for years)!!!

When we had our smart meter installed, the daily readings to Ovo were fine, but our usage graphs were all over the place - it turned out we had the meter set to send daily readings, and so the app was essentially ‘inventing’ our hourly usage to match expected patterns.  Could that be the case here?

In the app, top right is a little black circle with a person in it, if you tap that it takes you to your account details.  There’s a section near the bottom marked ‘settings’, and one of the options there is ‘How often meter reads send’.  Tap on that and check what it is currently.  If it’s set to daily or monthly, change it so that it is set to ‘every half hour’ for both billing and settlement data.

Based on your mums current reads of 30kWh per day (in March, so relatively mild), 13,000 kWh per year does not seem unreasonable.