Are any other Feed in Tariff (FiT) account holders not receiving the email request to submit their quarterly FIT readings?

Delayed/Withheld Feed-in-Tariff payments

I don't work for OVO and am just a simple OVO customer who is keen to know where his missing FIT payments are………noting that the end of April has come and gone without a Statement appearing, I took it upon myself to phone the FIT team and ask what was happening. Amazingly I managed to get through to an actual FIT person with only a 10 minute delay to learn that the Spring Quarter Statements will be in the post by Friday of this week – 5th May – and that, in my case, the two outstanding Quarters will be paid at the end of May as per the process. A result in the offing ?……..maybe; watch this space…………………..😁

By the way,  0330 303 5063 works but there is still no “select 4 ” option available, nor a FIT Team option – you need to speak to a person and ask to be put through to the Team.
 

Hey @P50WKB, 

Thanks for letting us know about the problem on the 0330 303 5063 phone that there’s no option 4, we’ve fed this back so that it can be looked into. We appreciate you giving us that update, we hope that everything is fixed for you soon!

Well, a result of sorts : the OVO process advises that the Spring Quarter Statements will be “posted on (+3 working days for post): By the end of April”. With the 30th April being a Sunday combined with the surfeit of Bank Holidays around that time I was prepared for a short delay but as nothing had arrived by the 8th May I was beginning to sharpen my pencil.

Out of the blue, on Thursday 11th May an E-mail arrived from The FiT Team announcing “Here are your payments for 13th September 2022 to 4th March 2023” correctly showing my withheld generation readings from 13th September 2022 and correctly showing the Total Payment that I should expect to receive by the end of May “(+3 working days for bank processing)”…………...Just one final hurdle to overcome to achieve full reimbursement for 19,037 kWh x £0.3515/kWh plus deemed export!

For those wondering why I bother: I have a wind turbine on the North East Coast of Scotland where it tends to be a bit windy; I was compulsorily switched from SSE to OVO and when I submitted my first set of generation readings to OVO in September last, I was told that "The reading you're trying to submit is higher than we would expect". Quite how that expectation was derived from a first reading is a mystery but it all went downhill from there. No statement or payment forthcoming of course. For my second generation reading in March I was told “As our system has flagged this as being outside the expected range, we will review it before it is submitted for payment. We will get back in touch once this has been reviewed". Again, no contact, statement or payment forthcoming of course.

One last point to make as it’s interesting to read over the minutiae of OFGEM "In a process called ‘periodic levelisation’, scheme costs are met every quarter by all licensed electricity suppliers based on their share of the electricity supply market of Great Britain (GB). Depending on how much a licensee has paid FIT generators for generation and export, (Note the tense) they either pay money into or receive money from the levelisation fund. After the end of each FIT year, the ‘annual levelisation’ process reconciles the year’s periodic levelisations and ensures each FIT licensee has paid or received the right amount of money." 

Absolutely nothing there to suggest that OVO is obliged to get reimbursed by OFGEM first despite the obtuse view expressed in a post above that “The way OVO pays out is actually safer than the way SSE used to pay out. By waiting for Ofgem to hand over the cash first, OVO doesn’t have to risk taking a hit to its bank balance.” ……………enough said!

Having not received the usual email with link, I rang 0330 303 5063 yesterday, 1 June, and got through to Option 4.  Variable volume and clarity of sound as you went through the various stages.  However, I was able to leave my reading and finish the call in less than 8 minutes.  And I have now received the explicitly promised email confirming receipt of the reading and undertaking to pay ‘no later than the first week of September’.  

Maybe things are slowly improving, albeit from a very low threshold ! Has it got anything to do with Ofgem taking a more serious interest in OVO’s overall performance I wonder ? 

Anyway, I am pleased to report that I received two outstanding FIT payments for the correct amount, into my bank account yesterday ( 13th September 2022 to 4th March 2023), together with an email showing the correct FIT ID account number, announcing “It’s time to give us your quarterly reading from your generation meter (and export meter, if you have one). Please send your reading before 30th June 2023”.

Given my comment on my previous post I did have a chuckle at the throwaway remark on the email that says “The Ofgem process can take a little while” - bit of a misunderstanding about whose process is the problem I think !!

If anyone needs a good public domain read about OVO covering the period November 2013 to January 2020, I can recommend the following 46 pages: para 2.71 “Ovo’s actions and omissions significantly favoured its interests” is particularly interesting.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2020/04/notice_of_decision_to_impose_a_financial_penalty_on_ovo_dated_9_april_2020_0.pdf
 

Will there be a follow up I wonder - lessons learnt springs to mind !

I have not received my June 2023 email request for my FIT readings. What do I do please.  More problems with OVO.!

You are going to have to contact the FIT team unfortunately, there isn't another option. 

Hey @Judesman 

Sorry to hear about this.

As Jeffus has mentioned, you’ll need to contact the FIT team regarding this as we don’t have access to the accounts here.

To speak to our FIT Team on the phone, call 0330 303 5063 and selecting ‘4’ when the IVR instructs you to do so.

You can also contact the team via email on fits@ovoenergy.com.

I have given my reading over the phone so thank you for that. OVO unable to explain why email not sent.