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Why isn't my smart meter communicating?

Hi, I'd be grateful someone knowledgeable in smart meters could provide any insight into what could be the problem with my smart meter. After having it initially installed I had to have an engineer come back and install an aerial. Since then I have all 5 green led lights flash every 5 seconds which I believe means the smart meter is working how it should be and is communicating. Despite this EDF is saying they can't read my meter. I will be looking to move to OVO once my 3 year fix deal finishes in September as I want to benefit from the EV tariff they have and I'm keen to get this problem resolved before doing this. If I input my details into the n3rgy website I get no obvious errors other than 'No Export MPAN configured' and 'warning device configuration has not been completed - whitelisted'. Are there any generic reasons why they can't read my meter? Does the green flashing led every 5 seconds definitely mean there is a connection? If that's the case why can't they read the meter? 

 

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Sorry title should have read 'Smart meter issue despite flashing green LED!!! 

Blastoise186
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Hmm… Welcome @Mossimo … To my lair! Muhahahahahahahahaha!

I am the Evil Genius they call Blastoise186, Smart Meter Wizard, at your service. :)

The diagnostics you’re showing me indicate the Comms Hub is fully up and running - that’s a good thing. You can ignore the Export MPAN unless you’ve got FiT/SEG - it’s the Import MPAN that you’re really after.

However, the Electric Meter appears to have not been fully Commissioned yet. It’s connected to the Home Area Network - otherwise it wouldn’t show at all - but the Commissioning process needs to be run again to force it to finish first-time setup. Once that’s done, you should be able to start pulling readings through.

If EDF fail to resolve this, feel free to switch to OVO anyway and OVO should be able to do it for you. Only the active Supplier can do this.

Hope this helps!

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Hi Blastoise, thanks for the reply. Apparently the matter is with their smart team, however they aren't very responsive and I fear they will try and fob me off by saying they have all done all they can. If the meter is all tickety-boo and it's the back end their side which is the problem hopefully they will be more inclined to sort it 

Blastoise186
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Sounds like someone is looking at it at least. But I suspect I’m probably right and it’d be an easy fix.

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I am in a similar position

Smart meter never worked in smart mode despite replacing and several engineer visits

The WAN LED flashes at the LFF (1 per 5 seconds) but my provider says I must have poor Arqiva signal due to local factors (good signal at the roadside) and seem reluctant to take this up with DCC.

The citizens advice tool which I believe interrogates DCC rather than ECOES2 cant find either of my meters.

The n3rgy tool just returns error 404 but I gather its credentials have not been accepted by DCC recently and I don’t know how to interpret this.

Do I just have to put up with it and wait for the “solution” that industry is working on?

Chris_OVO
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Hey @Grumpybore,

 

Welcome to the community!

 

@Blastoise186 and @BPLightlog are you able to share some of your insight on this to help out? 

Renewable energy jokes never get old.
Blastoise186
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I’ve tested the n3rgy homebrew tool this morning, it seems to be working fine. I’d recommend trying it again as that would most certainly make diagnosis easier.

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Blastoise

 

Thank you for such a swift response.

I have tried again and simply get 

Error finding address{'errors': [{'code': 404, 'message': 'It was not possible at the time to recover any information of meters associated with the received MPxN.'}]}
Blastoise186
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Thanks.

That sounds like DCC doesn’t know anything about your Site at all.

Can you show us the meters please?

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BPLightlog
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https://homebrew.n3rgy.com/

Actually I’ve just tried it myself and as my Aclara meter and Comms hub has a problem with third party data at present, the n3rgy tool does not show meter detail - so as Blastoise says, a photo might help

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Sorry for the delay

Let me know whether the picture quality is OK

 

Blastoise186
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Hmmm… Kaifa + L+G combo… Now that I didn’t expect…

Just to check, what colours are the WAN/HAN LEDs showing?

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Morning Blastoise - thanks again

Trust me to have an unusual setup

Both are green

Blastoise186
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Bear with me - I’ll need to spend some time thinking about this one. This may take a while.

But it’s rare to see this exact combo...

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Chris_OVO
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@Grumpybore @Blastoise186 @BPLightlog 

I’ll be keeping my eye on this one as if it’s a rare one then it’s one to learn from 😃

Renewable energy jokes never get old.
Blastoise186
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Still not finding much unfortunately. My best guess is that something has gone seriously wrong here. and that DCC needs to step in. Your supplier needs to raise that request, as DCC won’t talk to you directly.

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Thanks Blastoise.

 

I will redouble my efforts to get my supplier to directly liaise with the DCC and if I get any meaningful feedback will report on the forum.

It may simply be that the level of connection with the WAN, be that strength or long-term consistency, are different for the hub to show LFF LED and for the DCC to complete registration. It is possible given that I can only observe the flashing for a finite period that the LED sometimes shows LFF and at other times not. Do you know anything about the reliability of the LED flashing rate in indicating satisfactory connection to the WAN? I looked at the EDMI manual for the hub and must say it was exceptionally unhelpful in relation to interpreting the LED flashing rate.

Blastoise186
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The flash rate doesn’t show signal strength I’m afraid - only device status. It may show you whether there’s a link or not, but it definitely won’t show you how good or bad it is.

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BPLightlog
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It may not help in your situation @Grumpybore but there is a general guide which includes details on the indicators and flash rates as well as additional fitments such as aerials

on some meters there is a menu which can show signal strength but this won’t show if things are connected unfortunately. 

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Thank you both.

 

I had already seen the SMHC but was looking for more detail as given by Blastoise as whether the the flashing frequency indicated just a connection or a connection satisfactory for commissioning.

 

I will report further if I get any feedback from supplier and/or DCC. Supplier seems remarkably resistant to contacting DCC preferring instead to blame ‘local factors’ e.g. proximity of boiler and consumer unit.

BPLightlog
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Thank you both.

 

I had already seen the SMHC but was looking for more detail as given by Blastoise as whether the the flashing frequency indicated just a connection or a connection satisfactory for commissioning.

…

 

I had included the link to the guide as it does include this 

Although as you mention, the flashing rate might vary over time. 

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So I’m still having issues with my Smart Meter installation. Over two weeks in and my account still isn’t showing gas meter usage even though I’m told OVO are receiving the data, if that is the case where is it and why can’t any other third party see gas meter data, I’ve tried Bright, Loop etc. The more concerning issue now is that my account says there’s no active tariff/plan associated with my account, even though the plan was there prior to the smart meter install.

Someone somewhere has messed up and whenever I make contact I keep getting the run around. I’m starting to wish I moved supplier before getting the smart meters installed now.

Blastoise186
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Hi @neilmcl ,

It can take up to six weeks to fully set everything up after a Smart Meter install. I’d suggest giving it more time just in case it’s one of those things.

If we have more advice, we’ll let you know here.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
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Hi @Blastoise186 , surely that doesn't explain why my tariff has suddenly disappeared though, should it? I've had no bill for my old meters come through and can't see any bill histories because of the missing tariff details.

Blastoise186
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That’s what I’ve been considering as well.

If you haven’t already, try using Live Chat at https://ovoenergy.com/help - I often find that 10x easier than phoning up. Failing that, https://ovoenergy.com/feedback might work.

We’ll definitely keep you posted here if we have any thoughts of our own - this might take a while.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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