Why is my Smart meter In Home Display (IHD) not showing any electricity usage data?

pauleywauley ok. Unfortunately it looks like the admins have merged threads of conversation for issues that look similar, but aren’t actually the same. 

@pauleywauleywrote:

there's a lot of ‘customers' with on going problems with smart meters that just aren't being resolved on a reasonable time scale, whilst still getting their customers to have the Meters installed without being able to honour existing problems

I agree.

1: I have raised the issue of long-term problems not being addressed. This is being discussed by other staff within OVO and @Tim_OVO  has been copied.

In the majority of cases it has been difficult to resolve problems because the information being supplied by customers wasn’t sufficient for engineers to achieve a sufficiently accurate diagnosis.

Within the last few months that has changed. Within discussions here on the Forum there is now much more accurate information available to the engineers. I’m really glad to see the detail which you and @parekhd have put into your messages.

2: There is no link between the ongoing work to install new Smart Meters and the effort being put in to resolve existing problems.

Installations use a completely different set of engineers and they are operating to timetables approved by Ofgem to meet targets set for each Energy Supplier.

When Ofgem’s audits find that the installation target agreements are not being implemented, then a Supplier can be fined or their licence withdrawn. In 2019, SSE failed to comply with the agreed targets and was fined £1.2m. This was a long-term issue which resulted in its domestic customers being taken over by OVO.

Hi Transparent,

Thanks, but its surely counter productive to just keep installations of smets2 going whilst leaving customers with smets2 faults on the back burner and not seeming to be able to rectify these issues just because Ofgems targets are being met on the one hand, and original smets2 faults are not being addressed by Ovo, wouldn't it be better to focus on a solid smets2 base with happy smets2 customers than just continuing with the upgrade/install and putting more resources in just rectifying existing faults because as it stands, you increase the number of smets2 installs surely this is going to impact the issue with more faults being reported and more people being put on yet longer waiting lists for years without resolving the issues , from what I can see with the majority of the posts on these forums.

Its up to Ovo to address this issue and not just waste time being grouped together on this forum , just resource more into fixing this ongoing problem and help the loyal customer base or just turn Ovo into yet another SSE.

Paul.

There are many people who would agree with you, @pauleywauley - but the Energy Suppliers aren’t in a position to tell Ofgem what to do with their targets!

If you want to make representations about this, then the route is to write to your MP with a question that he/she will put to BEIS.

There are certain arguments which are more likely to be effective than others:

• Will the Government commit to retrain more people as Smart Meter engineers and similar technical trades for which there is a growing demand in the UK?
• Will the Government invest more resources into Smart Meter technology in order for the public to be properly equipped to combat Climate Change?

These questions hit at the heart of topics which are already high amongst HMG’s concerns with rising unemployment, international commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and re-skilling people to create a technology-based economy post-Brexit.

When writing to your MP, feel free to copy arguments from discussions here on the Forum. An MP of any political flavour is likely to act positively to arguments in support of technology to combat global warming.

Also remember that constituent’s letters to MPs are privileged communication and it is usual for both parties to keep these confidential. So please don’t quote verbatim back here on the Forum.

Hi Transparent,

Yes you're right, but MP's are just as bad at getting things sorted, just look at the total hash they've made of the pandemic.

But its just like I said, nothing has been rectified, not sure I can swap energy suppliers with the current state of my broken smart meter yet, but its coming up to nearly a year that the smart meter has had a fault and Ovo have done nothing to help, but probably the same as any energy supplier at the moment, its pointless writing to the MP cause again, nothing will be done, I think I'll have to stop sending elec readings up - wonder if that would help things along a little.

Paul.

Totally understand where you’re coming from, @pauleywauley 

Can I ask if you consider yourself to be in a densely populated area? I know that sometimes engineer coverage can be limited in some places vs others…… 

Also when was the last time this was chased up? And was a remote firmware upgrade option tried first? I’ll await your reply and then might take a look at this myself! 

Hi Tim,

Its never been chased up and No firmware upgrade or anything been suggested to me.  Yes I live just on the outskirts of Birmingham, so yes densely populated, but the Meter worked fine for the first couple on months sending both gas and electric readings up, but just stopped sending electric data up but continues now to send Gas data up.

Paul.

Thanks @pauleywauley really handy to know this. 

Although such actions from the customer shouldn’t be needed at this stage (far better for us to do this proactively) can you enquire about the option of the ‘Smart second line’ team, or ‘S2’ team consider attempting a remote firmware upgrade, in case this is the cause of the issue. Reach out to us via Web chat (scroll to the bottom) today or call on Monday if you prefer. 

When it was first installed, the smart meter IHD showed both gas an electricity usage. Over the last few months, only gas usage is being shown. 
 

all lights on the actual meter look ok. 

Got the exact same issue, I’ve been pushed around departments and now have had enough, it’s not the metre at fault according to the forums, why can’t OVO hive me a straight answer,  I was asked if I wanted to raise a complaint during my recent phone calk(about the 5th made to them regarding this problem) I’m going to do this as it’s just taking them far too long !! 

Thanks for joining in with your observations on this issue @Wheelman .

One of the problems we have with these IHD faults is the lack of feedback from the SMETS Engineers to say what they’re diagnosing and how the faults are getting fixed. We don’t know if there’s a single common fault, or several different ones. Nor do we know whether there is an analysis being done of each report or whether they just send a SMETS_reset command.

When customers like yourself complain, it’s very often the case that the problem simply gets quickly resolved, but with no information provided to say whether it self-corrected or that an engineer did something.

I agree that this is extremely frustrating.

Moreover, it mitigates against us customers trying to help by accurately describing the faults here on the Forum.

Let’s see what the Moderator @Tim_OVO has to suggest.