I have three meters - Why is my Monthly statement wrong again?

That sounds like you’ve got some progress there @TomThumb , thanks for keeping us posted!

I’d agree with you that splitting off that second gas meter is probably the best workaround for the time being. A bit of a bodge in some ways, but as long as it works, I guess that’ll be the main thing.

Somehow I get the feeling that trying to replace that meter with a smart gas meter will probably cause something else to implode as I’m not sure the HAN on any existing smart meters can handle two gas meters at once? That’s probably something which will have to be figured out eventually - ideally before the certification on the current one expires - but I think it’s best to at least get the current one fixed up for now. How to handle such an upgrade is something for another time.

@Blastoise186  If or when a booster / range extender is made available for the smets2 gas link, I would swap it for a smart meter, but with zero use for at least 6 months of the year, at present I just enter the same meter reading as the previous month, so it’s an easy time of the year regarding meter readings,

but the warning messages do vary from supplier tho, from,

This reading is the same as last month? ARE YOU SURE IT’S CORRECT?

This reading is the same as the previous month, YOUR METER APPEARS NOT TO BE WORKING CORRECTLY, WE NEED TO SEND AN ENGINEER OUT.

I wonder how many months it would take of zero usage by a smart meter to trigger a fault somewhere?

Going back to my original smart meter install (npower) the engineer did have to make 3 phone calls to 3 different departments to confirm that YES he could link the 2 gas meters to the 1 electric comms hub, but unfortunately due to the large distance involved & no workable  link, this was never put to the test,

Again thinking ahead a little, come tariff renewal time, I wonder if my now single traditional gas meter account will be eligible for the cheapest tariff alongside those normally reserved for smart meters accounts? Only time will tell…

Tom…

PS: I’ve just had a look at the ovo app, as the linked account only comprises of my 2 smart meters now, it looks like full functionality & actual usage history is working as Intended now 😀

Well it’s a sad day when the only thing which seems to work is a complaint!

I can confirm that a Communications Hub can talk with multiple meters. It also has tariff registers which can be assigned to different rates.

In the long term I think you’re going to need a new Comms Hub with one of the longer-distance solutions being developed and tested by the Alternative HAN Company. I suspect the use of 868MHz will achieve what you require.

Of course there will also need to be a matching SMETS2 gas meter approved with 868MHz ZigBee channels.

As for the cheapest tariff at end of your contract:… You’ll now be offered a tariff subject to an Ofgem Price Cap  automatically because the Government and Ofgem say so! This regulation is to be reviewed again in April 2021… most likely in favour of the consumer.

Another update

After the agreed approach of moving my traditional gas meter to a new account, 

Things are not exactly going smoothly at the moment again with ovo,

After I received my welcome to ovo email with my new account details, I had a couple of concerns with the tariff & start / end date.

Altho the new account mirrors the better energy plan I’m already on,  the tariff dose not, 

I understand that today’s cost might have increased from when I first joined ovo, but seeking clarification of not being penalised by adding an additional account, I feel any increase however small is unjustified!

The email notes  this is a new 12 month plan, with a start date of 10th December, but also states the tariff & price guarantee No end date.

As this needed clarification, I placed a call to ovo, who informed me that my new account is live but it holds no data, so they are unable to check anything.

My original account now shows my 2 smart meters, so my traditional meter has moved somewhere?

Have ovo lost my new account down a black hole already?

If you guys can help with.

The email I received shows a new account # (as expected)

But also shows a new ovo id #,  can anybody confirm the status of the ovo id?

 Personally I would have thought my ovo Id would remain the same across both my accounts, to link back to a single account holder / login etc ? Is that not the case?

Tia 

Tom...

Some curious behaviours there Tom!

If I was to take a lucky guess, I’d say it might be a case of your second account having only just been created with the basics for now, and that someone will need to go in there later and manually force a few things through in order to complete the setup process.

The legacy billing platform is a bit strange and OVO don’t have as much control over it as they do with the new one. It’s quite possible that the account was activated with the usual default settings for now which make things seem wrong, which can be a side-effect of trying to handle edge cases like this.

Hopefully the second account should be updated with the correct details soon, but please keep an eye on it just in case.

@Tim_OVO can you double check this one by any chance?

Yep very strange, was this not escalated when a complaint was raised, @TomThumb? No problem if not, but if it got to the Complaints team, you will have a dedicated agent who would be best placed to check on this. 

For now, a few things I can suggest and advise:

I am certain your tariff will be unchanged, with the same prices and end date. When this gets implemented is unclear, but you won’t be effected by different contract terms from this cosmetic change. 

If you’re on the legacy billing platform you will have an OVO ID, and if you’re on the new platform you won’t. This might explain it, does it look like your account has changed over (again) for both smart meters?

@Tim_OVO   @Transparent & @Blastoise186 I wouldn’t want you guys to miss this update.

After ovo were unable to provide clarification on my new account yesterday & I never received the promised callback later in the day.

I again placed a call to ovo this morning to seek some answers for my newly created account, namely the inconsistent end date & as to why ovo can justify an increase on my tariff,

The condensed response from ovo,

My account has broken ovo’s system yet again,

The system created a new account but it failed to populate correctly,

Ovo were unable or (unwilling) to refresh the creation of a new account,

Ovo have now reinstated my 3 meters back on a single account.

So in short I’m back where I started, back on a system that is unable & not in a position to handle my account,

Tim, from the the calls to ovo they did confirm the new account had a fixed tariff end date of

10th December 2021 (my main account end date March 2021)

Altho both accounts were on the better energy plan, the newly created account incurred & higher kWh cost & standing charge.

But due to the account error, they couldn’t delve deeper or resolve!

Both accounts were on the old legacy platform,

I got the feeling again that ovo were unable to identify the error(s) with my account & therefore unable to apply a fix.

Tim! the best answer need changing again 😀 

I just need my traditional gas meter to reappear alongside my smart meters on my account & will be totally back to where I started, 

So where do I go from here? any suggestions?

Tia

Tom...

At this point, I will have to admit that I’m stumped by this one.

In a way, I think this is probably one of the few extreme edge cases that probably warrants Tim intervening directly, before this gets even more tangled up in another infinite loop.

It’s very rare that I’d ask Tim to do this sort of thing, but I have concerns that it’s going to otherwise get trapped indefinitely.

Thanks for this update, @TomThumb and I have already asked for some support on this account. Just chased up today. 

I’ll update you, likely in the first week of January, depending on annual leave being taken this week. 

For now, festive cheer and a toast to all on today, Winter Solstice 

An update

After last weeks account change & subsequent rollback, the short lived full functionality of the ovo app has again lost any usability for me now that all of my 3 meters are back on a single account.

I have had some promising feedback via @Tim_OVO tho & hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.

Due to my traditional gas meter having zero usage over the winter months, the normal higher estimated usage figures during the colder months are the complete opposite of any energy companies predictions.

This results in a grossly over estimated usage forecast & an unjustified increase in monthly payments..

Ovo have now flagged this meter as zero usage for the time being 👍

So as an end user, any computer generated estimated annual usage figures should now be more balanced,

also the recent red flag on my account (a validation error) indicating a possible fault with this meter / account due to it’s not clocking any usage, is also suspended for now.

Ovo have also confirmed again that all 3 meters are aligned on the same billing / statement cycle, so hopefully my January statement will have no issues !

All being well, I shouldn’t have any updates until mid Jan when my next statement is due,

so I will take this opportunity to thank @Tim_OVO  / this forum & it’s members for the help & support this last year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a happy new year…

Tom...