Does OVO have plans to offer a 3 Phase smart meter for supplies larger than "100A per phase” connections (CT-type meters), and “vector sum” compliant?

Thanks @SeanS - it really is quite soporific, isn’t it?

And I agree with your analysis.

For those who aren’t deeply into abbreviations, ESME is Electricity Smart Metering Equipment.

Technically the rules in 5.17 state what the ESME shall be capable of calculating and reporting. It could perform this through:

• its own LCD display
• the IHD
• via your Energy Supplier (online graphs, invoices etc)

Having thought about this, I’m not convinced that a Supplier would use these inbuilt calculations from the ESME.

Isn’t it much more likely that the Supplier would retrieve the raw data from the registers where import and export is stored for each phase, and then perform the usage calculations within the Billing System?

This would enable different rates to be applied for Import and Export on each phase for every half-hour period throughout the day (a true Time Of Use tariff). That would enable OVO to pay a different rate for Export from a V2G charger if a proportion of the exported energy was derived from a set of 3-phase PV Panels.

That would match Kaluza’s current strategy which pays 4p /kWh more if you don’t have Solar Panels. After all, you didn’t have to pay OVO to import that energy in the first place, so you’d want the rates to be different.

Are you still with us @Ed_OVO ?

Firstly apologies if I’m telling you how to suck eggs. I’m still trying to get my head around all this...steepish learning curve. Also apologies for all the acronyms, truly, but there is a sea of them in all this!

So reading my way through the SEC document library…..

It would appear the answers to this are (eventually) more or less defined at high level by the Great Britain Companion Specification (GBCS) which is the overall messaging architecture / specification document for smart metering in the UK. GBCS in turn references* an international energy metering industry specification called the DLMS/COSEM (Device Language Message Specification / Companion Specification for Energy Metering) - basically the protocol stack of how all these smart meters (not just electric and gas, but also water and heat) and associated devices talk to each other.

DLMS/COSEM spec is divided into “coloured books” by the DLMS User Association as follows:

Green Book - DLMS/COSEM Architecture and Protocols

Yellow Book - DLMS/COSEM Conformance Testing Process

Blue Book -  COSEM Interface Classes and Object Identification System (OBIS)

White Book - DLMS/COSEM Glossary of Term

All this is neatly wrapped up into the IEC 62056 standards, which according to Wiki “are the international standard versions of the DLMS/COSEM specification”

(* GBCS says in its opening paragraph that it “aligns” with the DLMS Green and Blue books)

So GBCS is effectively *the* standard (and only possible) protocol for message exchange in the UK smart metering ecosystem. Any comms to and from meters and energy suppliers via the DCC must comply with the GBCS and its messaging protocol. Whatever available meter data (import, export energy readings etc etc) would somehow need to be encapsulated within this messaging standard.

Therefore this evening we turn our attention to the soporific delights of GBCS Commands and the Message Mapping Catalogue (MMC)….and old episodes of Columbo! G’nite 

I’m not going to try and match the level of knowledge you guys have here, @SeanS and @Transparent, but I wanted to update you and let you know, I’ve raised the following: 

I’ll be back with you as soon as I get an answer! 

Some really detailed comments here that is valuable as a resource

@SeanS could we move this over into its own topic? I feel the comments here are being wasted a bit, hidden in a simple Q&A about 3 phase supplies and what needs to happen to get a smart meter (as the ‘best answer’ provides)….

Good luck with splitting out this Topic @Tim_OVO !

I agree it should be done, but I think it will need some of the Posts in the middle of the dialogue repeated into both Topics of the split so as to make sense.

The test of whether you are successful is that @Amy_OVO can follow what’s being said.

Topic moved!

I’ve made this more of a discussion post, but hope to get some answers from next week. 

For anyone else, there’s two related Q&A topics on 3 phase supplies and smart meters here and here

That was sneaky @Tim_OVO - You split out the Topics at 5:30 on a Sunday afternoon, when few of us would be around.

However, as a bonus, the mechanism you used to do this has gifted an additional two points per posting to all contributors on this Topic. So @SeanS and I have done quite well out of the move!

Yes I’m spending my Sunday afternoon with strong tea, Miles Davis ‘best of’, and some moderating of this lovely forum. 

ps re points: you’re welcome!

Hi Amy - did you have any luck finding out if OVO plan on supporting any sort of 3-phase smart metering (sometime soon)?

Hi @SeanS

I have done the rounds and found out the latest position with regards to 3-phase supplies and smart meters. 

I can confirm that there’s still no time frame which we can provide, for when we’re manufacturing and installing smart meters for 3 phase supplies. 

We will be able to take on 3 phase supplies with other S2 model smart meters, but “the polyphase project in OVO is still in the feasibility stages at the moment….. If OVO have to do some internal development to send polyphase specific requests to the meters then we won't be able to fully support these meters from other suppliers until that work is done, but we would still be able to communicate with them to get readings’.