Can you speak to anyone at OVO on weekends?

That doesn't sound good @grumpyoldboy !

As it's a safety issue, and it's on the board where your Service Fuse and meter are fitted, then I'm wondering if OVO is the only party who could remedy this.

On which side of the meter is the overheating cable?

• the incomer from the Service Fuse?
• or the tails leading to the consumer unit?

Engineers working for your Distributed Network Operator (DNO) should also be able to fix this. Did you try their emergency number?

What region are you in?
Which DNO?

I would be interested to hear how this gets sorted. I have contacts in the Engineering Dept of the DNO who maintain the Distribution Grid local to me. So I'd like enough info to discuss the issue with them next time we meet.

Post a photo here if you can!

Thanks.

10:00am Saturday.
I received messages via Ovo Facebook page - Hopefully an engineer will arrive today before the house catches fire.
Apparently Ovo do not deem it necessary to have a 24/7 Emergency Number.
And UK Power Networks on 105 will only remove the main fuse because the fault is from the meter to the consumer unit.
Not very satisfactory.

Hello & Thankyou for your reply.
11:00 am Saturday 23/03/19

I received messages this morning via Ovo Facebook page after I left a message last night (Out of hours of course) - Hopefully an engineer will arrive today before the house catches fire.

I have restricted my power load to hopefully not set the meter alight.

Apparently, I am told, that Ovo do not deem it necessary to have a 24/7 Emergency Number.

And UK Power Networks on 105 stated that they will only remove the main fuse because the fault is from the meter to the consumer unit.

All not very satisfactory.

I am in Essex CM0 7T Area.

I did not know that I could contact the DNO Engineers directly as I have not seen any information regarding this anywhere.

Regards
Alan.

Hi again @grumpyoldboy I'm glad you've heard from OVO.

I'm a bit puzzled by the lack of a weekend emergency number for OVO. Let's just tag a couple of the Moderators, @Tim_OVO and @Nancy_OVO and ask for clarification.

Since this is a safety risk on cables connected to an item with a crimped seal, I think this is the sort of matter which needed an urgent response. Perhaps that level of response is only available to customers on the PSR.

The reason I have direct contact with engineers in my locality is because I'm a member of a community team running a "Smart Sub-station" on an Ofgem-funded trial. You and I have different DNO's, but I'd still like to ask them what should be the correct procedure in a case like yours.

23/3/19 10:30pm
Hi
The Engineer arrived at about 2:30 pm today.

They had to change the meter because of the overheated cable but they only install smart meters now.

Luckily I have some experience in the electrical field & was able to restrict the load & constantly monitor the cable overnight.

Others may have gone with the Uk Power Networks route & had the Main Fuse removed.
In that case I would have been without any power for about 23 hrs. So no telephone or internet for contact overnight. & everything else that goes along with that.

When I received the reply after the 8am Saturday start time on the Ovo Facebook page the contact was very helpful.

Because the Ovo helpdesk 0330 303 5063 is M-F 8am > 6pm I was asked to contact the Boost PAYG section of Ovo on 0330 102 7517 which is open on Saturday 9am > 1pm but I was unable to contact them because the call just transferred to the closed section.

The Facebook contact then took over and contacted the engineers.

I was informed that:

Unfortunately we don't have an emergency line for pay monthly customers, simply because it's incredibly rare that a credit meter will require an emergency assistance.

I would have thought that some kind of 24/7 contact should be available for safety purposes.

All rather frustrating & worrying.

Regards
Alan

Let's wait and see that the Moderators say, @grumpyoldboy

I've had a look through the Ofgem Regulations to see if this type of fault is covered in any of your statutory rights. It seems not.

There are minimum timescales for Energy Companies to respond to certain events. These are mainly concerned with customers on the Priority Services Register, and those who experience top-up errors with Prepayment meters.

However, I can find nothing concerning safety... which seems odd to me!

Ofgem do have periods of Public Consultation from time to time:

There was one at the end of last year concerning the high proportion of those on Prepayment Meters who voluntarily remove themselves from energy supplies for periods in excess of three hours. This is an indicator of households in need of assistance, and it demonstrates Ofgem's social concern that they are evaluating how to best tackle the issue.

There is also a current Public Consultation on RIIO-ED2, which is profits-constraint levied against DNOs unless they comply with directives to reduce losses in the Electricity Distribution Grid.

So you could raise the safety issue with Ofgem... or indeed your MP.

Everything I have researched shows that both OVO and your DNO are operating within the performance guidelines in your case. The DNO's suggestion of pulling the Service Fuse is understandable if they perceive that will remove the safety risk.

Of course, if your DNO had sent an engineer to site, he may well have decided that he might as well fix the issue of the Meter Tails whilst he was there. So you could possibly have been able to enjoy an ongoing electricity supply anyway. But such action would be down to common-sense rather than any regulatory requirement.

If you feel that such a safety matter should be embraced by the energy supply regulations, then you should take this up with the relevant authorities. Ofgem rely on being told about problems, and far too few people respond to Public Consultations anyway.

If it was me, I'd write to my MP. I know him well enough to know that he would bounce my email onto the relevant parties and require them to respond. In fact, I usually pre-empt that by writing in such a way that the facts are clearly laid out and ready for him to forward.

A letter from an MP is immensely powerful, and every civil servant and public body will realise that they must provide a proper response in a timely fashion.

The point you'd need to make is that there appears to be no failing on the part of your Energy Supplier, nor DNO, and yet you were facing a safety issue which would deny you power over a weekend. Therefore you seek your MP's advice on whether the regulatory framework needs modifying such that there is a guaranteed timeframe for re-establishing power where public safety is at risk.

Is that OK?

Hi @grumpyoldboy,

I've moved your other posts onto here so they're all on the same thread.

We provide customer support during the week and emergency support out-of-hours in line with industry standards.

As your energy supplier, we're only authorised to repair/replace the meter itself. Anything prior to the meter would need to be looked into by the DNO. Anything after/in the property would need to be looked into by an electrician.

Hope this helps

Hi @Nancy_OVO Can you please clarify your final comment?

The fault reported by @grumpyoldboy is on the meter. It's the connections where the tails leave to go towards his consumer unit.

Hey @Transparent,

As Nancy said this would be down to us to fix as it's part of the meter. Anything after the meter is a job for an electrician. Anything before the meter is down to the DNO.

@PeterR1947 have you got any experience with the issue @grumpyoldboy had?