New Home with THTC - how can I get support dealing with changing the meter and tariff?

Hi @Walphelps ,

OVO is basically the only THTC capable supplier so switching away is basically impossible - I’d recommend against doing so anyway as most suppliers won’t touch your setup. Bear with me and I’ll ask the Forum Moderators to stop by.

Thank you for the feedback.

Unfortunately I have struggled with the support they don't appear to know what THTC is and have to put me on hold while they talk to someone else.

Is there someone who deals with THTC that I can contact at OVO?

The latest news is that OVO will contact you when they’re ready to replace the current meters. That’s probably going to be the easiest solution to this one.

Hi @Walphelps 

As you have found the triage support process for complex meter setups with OVO is poor, although OVO are not alone. There are many examples on the forum unfortunately.

I think you would will be lucky to get a resolution via that route.

You could just sit back and wait for ovo to contact you, but it sounds like your account is already complicated... OVO have been telling customers a way forward will be revealed in Spring, unfortunately this date has changed several times.

Also OVO are currently the second worst supplier for the number of smart meter installations in the last ofgem annual stats and got the second highest fine from the regulator, so it may take a long time for all the THTC meter setups to be sorted.

Personally I would log an official complaint, include as much detailed information as possible including pictures, old bills etc and tell ovo exactly what you want to happen.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback

Then after 8 weeks or a deadlock letter you can ask the Ombudsman for help if things are not sorted.

https://www.energyombudsman.org/

This isn’t the same situation but an example of someone with a THTC meter getting their issue sorted and compensation for not being on a suitable tarrif in a timely manner. It seems reasonable that the Ombudsman will rule in your favour if it gets that far although your situation is different. Hopefully it won't as ovo are trying to reduce the number of escalated complaints which is currently the highest in the country.

https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/switching-restricted-thtc-single-meter-electric/

You can also post a review on Trustpilot if you like

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ovoenergy.com

Moving to a new supplier at this point may be more trouble than its worth. I have a two meter THTC set up and, like others in my area, joined Octopus a couple of years ago as their tariffs were much cheaper than SSE (now OVO) I’ve had no problem with their billings and its easy to get through to them. However, they seem to know next to nothing about THTC and have been useless at giving me advice on what to do post RTS shutdown. They also told me that the THTC meter is still the property of SSE (presumably now OVO) and that their engineers could not touch it. 

Hi @Jeffus 

Thank you for the fuller picture of what is happening and the advice on the way forward. I was already considering that a complaint might be my next best step so I'll try that next.

It may not speed anything up, but apart from sitting back and waiting there isn't another option I think.

To be fair to ovo, I am sure it isn't easy finding a solution that works for all the setups unfortunately.

It won't be quick, but I hope you make progress.

To be honest… I think you’re going to have to switch back to either OVO or a supplier that fully supports THTC in order to get this fixed - and there’s barely any that do. Octopus has shown no interest in THTC support and to be brutally honest, they should never have taken you on if they weren’t willing nor capable of supporting you. Black mark for Octopus there. Sorry, but it just is.

AFAIK OVO isn’t responsible at all for your meters if you switch away and cannot touch them whilst you’re with another supplier.

Just FYI

These are the latest stats on the number of the wider RTS meters overall left by supplier, the majority of which are domestic.

950,000 to remove at the last count

The top 14 currently according to Elexon from the meter database by MPID are:

Scottish Power  SPOW

OVO OVOE

EON EOND

Octopus  MRCY

British Gas TILL

Bulb REGE (now part of Octopus)

EDF LOND

EDF EDFE

British Gas BGAS

Shell FRST

EDF SEEB

SSE plc IMPO

So Energy GESL

British Gas ENRD

You would need to take a closer look at all the others in the graph to see which MPID are basically the same supplier. For example Octopus takeover of Bulb. This may change the top suppliers.

I was surprised how many RTS meters Octopus/Bulb had to migrate at some stage from a quick look. I expected the RTS meters to be concentrated in the legacy suppliers