Calculating whether you have hit the 12.5% target or not

MPxN = the identifier for the supply, MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number) for Electricity and MPRN (Meter Point Reference Number) for Gas

MAC Address = Media Access Control address, a physical and unique identifier attached to all network capable devices

CIN = Customer Identification Number, mostly easy to figure out

EUI-64 = Complicated network stuff to do with IPv6

GUID = Globally Unique IDentifier - basically an ID number

CAD = Consumer Access Device, used to do fancy tricks with your IHD like allow third-party tools to see real-time usage data

Hi, I saw lots of downloads for my “power move” spreadsheet so it seems there’s a demand! As people are using it, I’ve updated it (same download URL):

Now it additionally accepts 30min data in the CSV files (different formats) that you can download from https://www.n3rgy.com/ and https://glowmarkt.com (my data from smarttarriff wasn’t updating, I emailed their support and they said it’s a prototype service, then activated my account on glowmarkt - that is updating).

Also extended the BST check to 2025 so it can be used for the next OVO challenges, and added a date range to compute over (and sanity check on the days), so no need to sort or remove any readings any more, just paste the whole first two columns of your usage data, easy! Spreadsheet now looks like:

Hi @Alandamore 

This looks like a fabulous way to record and download our usage data, for which many thanks.

However (there’s nearly always a “however”!), I notice you mentioned …. (my data from smarttarriff wasn’t updating, I emailed their support and they said it’s a prototype service, then activated my account on glowmarkt - that is updating)…, and this made me consider my own problem, possibly starting from when I created an account at smarttariffsmartcomparison a few days ago.

Since that time every time I login the account unsuccessfully attempts to download my data, constantly showing, every time I log in, the message “data downloading, estimated time 19 minutes 45 seconds”. Coincidentally, two days ago my OVO usage data suddenly stopped showing any electricity figures whilst still showing half-hourly figures for gas (I’m dual fuel). 

It’s now suddenly occurred to me to wonder whether the constant, unsuccessful efforts by smarttariffsmartcomparison to download my electricity data are somehow freezing out OVO (and myself) from viewing my half hourly electricity usage figures? The smart meter (Kalia MA 120) seems fine judging by the impeccable gas usage half hourly figures, and the IHD is behaving normally, too. 
 

Do you think that it’s possible for my usage figures to be blocked from my view in this way? And, more crucially for my October Power Move efforts, possibly from OVO too. Even if that is the case, does this mean my electricity usage data for the last few days is lost?

Apologies, not being very technical, I hope I’ve explained myself fully and am not missing something obvious here.  Below please find a copy of an email I’ve just sent to smarttariffsmartcomparison:

/copy of my email to smarttariffsmartcomparison =======================

I have logged in several times over the last few days to my new smarttariffsmartcomparison account and on each of the 4 occasions it’s given me the message “data downloading, estimated time 19 minutes 45 seconds” while the little downloading circle just spins around and around.

The worry for me is that over the last few days that I’ve been trying your site, my energy supplier account has no longer been showing my half-hourly usage figures for electricity. Could your efforts to download my electricity data be somehow preventing my meter exporting data to OVO?

The half-hourly downloads have previously been working fine all through September, up to and including 2nd October; the gas ones are still showing half-hourly no problem (I’m on dual fuel), and my IHD is performing fine as ever.

Is it possible for you to interrupt the attempts to download my existing data so that OVO and I can hopefully retrieve my half-hourly usage again?

===============/end of copy of my email to smarttariffsmartcomparison 

I’d be so grateful for any thoughts you might have on this, or indeed on how to “release” my missing half-hourly electricity usage figures for the 3rd, 4th and now also the 5th of October. and in the meantime of course I’m hoping for help from Hildebrand/Glowmrkt.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this Forum this sudden cessation of figures on the 3rd Oct, and received some kind and encouraging replies, but have on,y just considered the possibility of a smarttariffsmartcomparison impact in some way?? It’s very odd, at the very least a strange coincidence, because all through September up to 2nd October the half hourly electricity usage figures were flawless and thoroughly reliable.
 

Many  thanks in advance…

There have been for the past couple of years cases of smart meter data being unreliably transmitted around the move from one quarter and tariff to the next. Not all customers are affected and only a few notice. I can’t explain what happens, but I’ll make some guesses:

Meters all have to be reconfigured for the new tariffs. This couldn’t possibly happen for all the millions of consumers simultaneously at midnight on 30 September, so I suspect it’s done in manageable batches over a period of days. While this is going on, with data flying in all directions, I suspect that some accounts are put ‘on hold’ until the entire smart meter data system has settled down after the upheaval. 

Meters will still be storing their own data (midnight readings and half-hourly usage figures) and transmitting them to the DCC. This is where OVO and other authorized collectors get them from. I think there are systems in place everywhere to check whether everything has been retrieved, and if there are any chunks that haven’t, the recipient will try again - repeatedly if necessary - to retrieve the missing bits. This may take a few days or, in a few severe cases, weeks. 

However, it’s most customers’ experience that any gaps are indeed eventually filled. We don’t always learn about this; people are quick to report missing data here in the forums, but not all of them come back to tell us when it’s eventually sorted itself out.

It’s always a problem when multiple clients try to retrieve large quantities of data from the same database at the same time. There will be collisions, and systems are in place to ensure that they all get what they want eventually. You can, I’m sure, rest assured that while one client’s attempt to retrieve data may delay another’s, the data themselves remain inviolate and they’re still there when the second client tries again a few seconds, minutes, hours or days later.

Patience is always a virtue when things like this happen. Unless not everything has fallen into place by the time the next statement is due - for most customers, at the end of October - my suggestion would be to keep calm and carry on; they also serve who only stand and wait [insert more appropriate clichés here as desired].

PS

You might find some comfort or otherwise in this thread, one of several, that started just a year ago on the topic of missing data on and after 1 October:

I think the smart meter conundrum is that people who were sold on the idea, expected a constant flow of information and, as we’ve learned from OVO’s own smart meter experts, that was never going to be the case. 

I’ve seen my own data ‘drops’, flaws and missing pieces but it’s an interesting point about data recovery. 
I think that suppliers poll for meter readings when required but it appears that this can be suspended when there is an increase in data updates such as at tariff change. 
Whilst overall the data is recovered, it’s not always back filled with half hour slots as this is not as important for billing (except for ToU). And so generally what will be seen is daily information and billing meter reads but not necessarily all data recovered. 
What I do see, through all communication issues is full information from my in home display (IHD) and even more information from my Glow unit, coupled with the Bright app. Perhaps this type of locally coupled device is the better route forward for monitoring your usage as it doesn’t depend on transmission over more than a few metres. 

Thank you so much @BPLightlog and  @Firedog for your kind and reassuring comments and all the helpful and knowledgeable advice.

You’re right about my need to be patient!  You know, I hadn’t even considered how busy things would be the tariff change on the 1st, probably because I’m on fixed tariff until May.

When things return to normal I shall definitely be exploring the Bright app…makes a lot of sense to have the data locally available so to speak, especially, as you correctly say, my IHD has been fine throughout all this.

It’s amazing how I’ve come to rely on checking the half-hourly usage figures over the Power Move challenge particularly; I’m so looking forward to doing that again, and thank you so much for all the reassurance about the data not being actually irretrievable even though I can’t see it at the moment!

I am not alone!  I shall learn patience! “Everything comes to him who waits” and so forth!!

Thanks so much again…

OK. Over the past couple of weeks, my online OVO account has been in a state of flux following a meter exchange. There are missing readings, missing half-hour usage data, inexplicable usage estimates and a spurious statement for September. I’m confident (!) that it will all come right before too long, preferably before 31 October.

During this turbulent period, all my usage data have been consistently available from n3rgy via Guy Lipman’s brilliant utility,¹ sometimes only a few moments after that usage took place. Often, though, there’s a delay of an hour or two. I find this route the most straightforward of the various ones I’ve tried; the CSV files it produces, especially for a single day, are arranged with local timestamps ready to copy and paste into an Excel sheet. I may find time to write a step-by-step guide to using this source.
  

1 Note to @BPLightlog: this is particularly aimed at Octopus customers, e.g. with built-in tariff data, but it works for most others too. Have you had a look at it?

Only very briefly as my Glow IHD and Bright data feed automatically takes price feeds and presents my data just right. I also use the Glowmarkt data download 

Hello @Firedog I had a quick look at n3rgy, but unfortunately it couldn’t find my MPAN…I’m guessing g because my Communications Hub is still not connected to Wan.

Looks useful though, like the glowmrkt data download (whenever I may succeed in downloading electricity data in the future!)

Thanks….

I did a quick check some weeks ago, and I found only one day where OVO was missing my Hh figures - 21 March 2023. Those figures are clearly still available from DCC, so there must be a cut-off point when OVO stops bothering about back-filling missing historical data. Because they can still be retrieved by other routes, it’s of no consequence to me or, I suspect, anybody else.

ToU billing depends on meter readings on the different ToU registers, not on the Hh usage figures.
  

I’ve been doing a little bit of checking with just a couple of days’ figures from my new meter. If I add up the Hh data for the peak and offpeak periods separately and add them together, I find that the difference in the totals is within 1Wh. The difference between registers, though, is up to 15Wh. This presumably reflects the millisecond timing differences between recording register states on the one hand and the Hh data for the periods preceding and following the ToU change on the other:

 

I’ll be keeping an eye on this when my meter readings start appearing again, but on this limited basis I’m pleasantly surprised at the apparent accuracy.