When will RTS meters stop working?

I’m also told that OVO will be starting to reach out to affected customers soon to commence the process of upgrading you to Smart Meters.

I strongly recommend you accept that offer.

There’s very little time left before the end of the year so it will need to be addressed with some urgency!  If the RTS signal stops from January onwards we don’t want to be stuck with no heating in the winter (or paying a MUCH higher rate for heating).  The ‘top up’ period in the afternoon under the superdeal tariff is also essential for effective operation of our storage heaters.

It would be good to have some communication about this from OVO - time is now very short.  There will be chaos in January if the RTS signal stops (as forecast in the FAQ article quoted above - which is the cause of my concern).

Even if the RTS Signal dies, most of the affected meters should continue to run as-is using the last known switching times on repeat. The engineers of the 1980’s did consider that possibility and built-in a fail-safe mechanism.

But it’s designed for short-term use only - please don’t rely on it for longer than you have to.

I hope that’s correct and the fail-safe mechanism works (although I must admit to being sceptical). 

The FAQ article says the following which is why I’m worried:

“The shutdown of the RTS service would mean that the teleswitching features would completely stop working, which could in theory leave your electricity meter jammed on the last rate it was on before the signal died, prevent your heating/hot water from turning on properly or leave the heating/hot water jammed on 24/7.”

Indeed, it was myself who wrote that, albeit some time ago and things have changed a little since. I wasn’t aware of the fail-safe at the time, but arguably it’s better to leave that in as a precaution and to factor in the worst-case scenario.

Hey @SteveUK,

We have an FAQ which may be helpful to you:

If a customer has a meter that’s affected by the RTS switch off, we’ll be in touch to arrange a meter and tariff upgrade to keep your heating and hot water working.

There is more information about this on the website here. 

Thanks Emmanuelle - hopefully this will be actioned in good time before the year end.  I note the link refers to “a meter and tariff upgrade”.  Does this imply that the tariff will change?  If so, it would be good to understand how.  We are on Superdeal and it’s important that we have an off-peak heating period during the afternoon to top up our storage heaters (as well as off-peak overnight).

Incidentally, we are finding that the RTS signal somehow interferes with the data recording for our solar battery.  It doesn’t interfere with the functioning of the system but randomly switches on and off the data log at midnight, 08:00 and 16:00.  I wonder if anyone else has this problem.

My understanding is that the tariff being offered depends on your circumstances. The best people to talk to are the specialist team at OVO handling these matters.