That’s really strange and is supposed to be almost impossible. It sounds to me as if the records on the national electricity meter database ECOES need to be fixed. It’s shared between all suppliers and a few other trusted parties and is supposed to keep a record of all the meters you’ve ever had - including the serial numbers. I can’t access ECOES or your account with OVO myself and this forum can’t be used to share personal info, but this is something that definitely needs to be fixed, otherwise it will cause things to get worse.

Could you double check that the right serial number is listed in MyOVO? If the right one shows up there (your MPAN and Meter Serial Number should also be on your bills), it might just be a case of getting your ECOES record updated with the correct details based on what OVO has.

If they don’t match up however, this may need further investigation. I’ll see if I can ask @Tim_OVO for help with this. If you do contact the Support Team again, I’d definitely recommend going in via Live Chat or Phone via https://help.ovoenergy.com.

If you keep getting stumped though, definitely give us a shout here again. We don’t give up easily!

Our house was built in 2016 and the electricity supply was with Eon, we changed to Ovo without a problem. In 2020 I tried to swap both gas and electricity to octopus, and the gas supply swapped but the electricity failed due to a discrepancy picked up with the MPAN. Basically the MPAN labelled on my meter is down as the the house next door. Ovo won’t change 52 to 51 on ECOES, nor will Eon, and the Ombudsman have since stopped communicating with me. I would like to sell the house next year but I think this is going to create issues!!

Any advice??

Hey @AC in SC,

Sorry for the issues you’ve had.

It won’t affect you selling the property, but may cause issues for the new owners if they decide to switch in future.  It sounds like you are dealing either with ‘crossed meters’ or an Erroneous Transfer.

What are crossed meters?

Crossed meters occur when the meter serial number (MSN) for one property is incorrectly registered against an meter point administration number (MPAN) for a different property.

Usually the process for identifying a crossed meter would be to ask the customer to send in photos, perform a kettle test and burns test (if the customer has gas)

How to perform a kettle test

It is important that this test is done during a quiet point of the day so that other homes don’t interfere with the results.

1. Take a meter reading from all electricity meters in the area.
2. Boil the kettle 3 - 4 times.
3. One of the meters should clock a lot quicker than the others and this would show that this is your meter.

How to perform a burns test

It is important that this test is done during a quiet point of the day so that other homes don’t interfere with the results. 

1. Make sure all gas meter appliances are off and the meter stops clocking.
2. Turn on your gas appliances and check that the meter starts clocking again.
3. Turn off your gas appliances again and check the meter stops clocking again.
4. If the meter remains on and off as expected, then we can confirm that that meter supplies your home.

What is a fuse finder test?

An engineer will attend with a piece of equipment that allows them to trace the origin of power from any point in your home.

This test allows us to confirm which MSN supplies your property. These tests can be used to help find the correct details in the case of a crossed meter, and can also be used in some Erroneous Transfer situations.

If you think the issue might be crossed meters and you haven’t completed the above I would advise doing so. 

Hope this helps. 

Hi

Do you know why the ECOES cannot be amended?

Hey @AC in SC,

Thanks for your response.

Ecoes is the national database for electricity. If an address is listed incorrectly, or a MSN hasn’t been updated or is incorrect, it can be amended. It sounds like you may have an issue that is account specific which is preventing this from happening.

This similar thread might be helpful to you:

Hope this helps. 

I have just moved over to OVO from SSE.

My daily usage on SSE had more than tripled since the start of January, I have been told by my building that SSE have not updated to the newest MPan numbers so meters in our building are being mixed up.

This was confirmed when I did two burns tests and they showed no change in usage on the app.

I spoke with SSE at the end of january and was told nothign can be done as my account is in migration but it will all be resolved when moving over and I will not be charged until march so the high usage shouldnt matter. 

This was not true as I was charged a bill from SSE when my account migrated and the issue still seems to be present as the usage on OVO is showing just as high as before.

What can be done about being overcharged for the final bill from SSE and can this be reverted if the issue with the MPAN is resolved by OVO?

I can no longer see my old usage on my SSE account nor on the OVO account.

How about the issue with the final bill from SSE, is this something that can be resolved from OVO as theyre one in the same now?

From what we’ve seen elsewhere I’m not sure about that. Accounting is quite separate 

It’s a complicated one, @Gritz but we can certainly make sure you’re not overcharged. 

If your old provider has billed you to the usage of the wrong meter (through no fault of their own I might add), then the readings are wrong from whenever that mistake happened. We would fix the confusion and monitor your usage to work out the recalculated usage. Then make lots of changes behind the scenes to make sure your charges weren’t inflated since the mistake happened. 

I’d recommend getting an update from the OVO Support team for now to make sure the process is in motion. 

Hi, folks. Old SSE/new OVO customer here. A story in 3 parts:

1. Managed finally to get my online account set up through the Chat function, but our address was completely wrong. 

2. Phoned the support line yesterday, and a very nice adviser promised it would be sorted out. Not yet done so, but accept it is still early doors.

3. However, on doing a meter reading (we still have the old style dual electricity/heating meter) we discovered that the serial number...drum roll...is also completely wrong!! So, I don't know whether we have been billed for or paying the electricity for Prestwick Community Hall, or vice versa!!

Any help, including who to email, would be useful. 

Hey @Speff,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

If your meter serial number, or address is listed incorrectly on the national database we’ll need to get this updated. The first step would be contact the support team with a photo of your meter displaying the meter serial number, you are able to do this over webchat. Once we have all of the relevant information we can contact the national database to get this updated. 

The support team can check your previous statements to see if the serial number or address were listed incorrectly when you were with your previous supplier. 

There is also the chance that we have taken over the incorrect supply, and that your previous supplier held a different address or meter serial number. This is very unlikely with a migration, and more common when a customer signs up from scratch.

Please keep us posted with how you get on. 

Now that we know the new capped rates I am looking for  a new fixed price contract. However on enquiry and entering post code and address, new potential suppliers think I have an Economy 7 meter … which I dont.  Installed March 2023 is a smart meter and I’m being charged just one rate. 

 Why is this information wrong and how can I get out of this bind?

Hi @jaybell , I think that meter is ‘capable’ of being an E7 meter - so perhaps it’s registered as that. It has various rate registers and also an export register (as you found some time ago).

You should be able to specify E7 or not on a new tariff I would have thought 

Thanks bplightlog…. however somewhere is a central record of meters/mpans etcet so who can access it to correct incorrect info?   Obviously potential supplers use this central regisrty to find out ( and verify) customer details.  In my case the held info is incorrect and I need it corrected.   Because its now wrong I cant get a quote from any new supplier who  wants to know what my annual comsumption is on both date and night rates and you cant enter Zero into the latter.

It would be the ECOES database that will need to be corrected.

If you check the rest of the details are correct compared to your billing details then ask for it to be corrected 

Just to be certain: have you checked the meter itself to see whether there is more than one register counting consumption? Most smart meters have four registers, but how they’re named, labelled and accessed varies a lot from meter to meter. A photo of yours would help us help you.

Another clue is your MPAN, which you should see on every bill:
  

The Profile Class is different for single-rate and multi-rate supplies. 01 is the code for single-rate domestic supplies, while 02 is the code for multi-rate supplies. If yours is 02, that’s why external systems think you’re on a tariff like Economy 7.

Thanks.  very useful info.   However my mpan showns an “01” in the profile class box .    as you mentioned , yes the meter will record different rates but shows only import/export and blanks.   So the record at ECOES may be wrong: how do i get this corrected so that potential suppliers can see that I only want one rate? The meter ( subject to lot of other issues, see my other threads) is only 1 year old and working correctly.

 

Installed March 2023 is a smart meter and I’m being charged just one rate. 

Just to be certain: have you checked the meter itself to see whether there is more than one register counting consumption? Most smart meters have four registers, but how they’re named, labelled and accessed varies a lot from meter to meter. A photo of yours would help us help you.

Another clue is your MPAN, which you should see on every bill:
  

 

The Profile Class is different for single-rate and multi-rate supplies. 01 is the code for single-rate domestic supplies, while 02 is the code for multi-rate supplies. If yours is 02, that’s why external systems think you’re on a tariff like Economy 7.

 

Hi @jaybell , from looking at this problem elsewhere, I believe it’s your supplier who needs to check and get this changed. 

I tried a few suppliers. In each case I was given the option to say whether I was looking for single-rate or multi-rate tariffs.

@jaybell Which suppliers have you tried? I could see what happens with them with my overtly multi-rate meter (Profile Class 02) even though I’m currently on a single-rate plan.

Hey @jaybell,

I can see our Community Members have already given some great advice here. 

If you believe your meter is listed incorrectly on the national database please contact the support team to get this information updated. 

The serial number on my ovo account doesn’t match my meter.  What can I do?

Hi @Poupee , these a whole raft of info here which might help guide you. 
 

It sounds as if the national database needs updating as that would be what your supplier works from. 
You will need to get in touch with customer support but a read through of the other thread might help you 

When I log into my account I’m presented with two options for meters and to send my meter readings. However, the meter serial numbers and meter point administration numbers don’t match mine. 

Sounds like you need to chat with OVO Support about that ASAP @amylour . Please contact them via https://ovoenergy.com/help and they’ll take a look.

Hey Amy, 

As @Blastoise186 has said your best option is to contact our Support Team and they’ll be able to look into your account with you. 

You can also reach them on Whatsapp or Social Media here: 

Whatsapp - 0330 175 9695

https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy/

https://x.com/ovoenergy?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/ovoenergy/?hl=en

I hope this helps!