When will RTS meters stop working?

Steve, 

The April 2024 date is quoted by most of the suppliers on their websites and also on the OFGEM site. There is some speculation in the press that the switch off will be delayed into 2025 but as Blastoise186  says above the official date is April 2024.

Personally I think the delay may well happen. Where I live (NE Scotland) there are many of us with the  old THTC system that relies on the RTS. My understanding is that there is no like for like replacement yet available for THTC (Economy 7 etc would be much more expensive).  Hence we need the signal to keep working. until a workable solution is found.

At last I have found someone in the same situation as myself (SteveUK)! I have been on Superdeal for over 25 years & like Steve I need that top up in the afternoon to make good use of our storage heaters. We have 2 meters to run the Superdeal tariff. One meter gives 3 readings (day, night & stored (our water)) & the second meter gives a reading for the storage heaters. SSE has never appeared to understand the system & frequently messed up the bills with way out estimates. It has now taken over 2 months to migrate to OVO & my account is still not sorted out! They appear also to be utterly lost in regard to Superdeal even though it is listed on their website as a tariff! The welcome letter from OVO stated nothing would change from SSE but already with the new account still not yet running changes seem in inevitable going forward. About to send all the details to  the Ombudsman to see if he can sort it out!

Superdeal is a legacy tariff type that - as far as I can tell - has no future. You’ll need to accept that you might get booted off of it at some point. OVO will discuss that with you first though.

FYI this is coming from me as a forum volunteer here. I’m not an OVO staffer so can’t give official answers.

Trying to discuss anything with OVO is a chore! Migrated from SSE over 2 months ago & account still not set up!

I find Live Chat far easier to work with than going in by phone. It also gives the agents an easier time as they can refer back to the conversation by scrolling back through the chat, rather than having to memorise all of what has been said so far.

Both SSE & now OVO seem so confused about the system I have (& had for 25+ years!) of Superdeal run with 2 meters that all forms of contact with them, including Live Chat appear to be getting nowhere. As I said over 2 months so far to migrate & still not sorted. Can I be the only person with Superdeal run with 2 meters, one giving 3 readings & the other giving the reading for our storage heaters? Seems to have baffled them all completely so if moving from Superdeal what could be offered.

If you phone 0330 303 5063 during the week, you’ll probably get through directly to the team responsible for your meter setup.

They can advise on an upgrade path as well

I’ve had a letter from OVO claiming my Economy 7 meter will stop working at some unspecified time because ‘it uses a long wave radio signal to switch between peak and off peak times’. This apparently is the same signal that powers BBC Radio 4 on long wave and is due to be switched off. Therefore I have to have a smart meter installed. 

This is surely garbage isn’t it? An early April Fool joke? There are over four million faulty smart meters in the country which enable energy firms to overcharge. I’ve said no thanks unless and until this one does give up the ghost.

Hi @Brian N ,

Actually, it’s completely true. The letter is genuine.

If you don’t act soon, your heating and hot water WILL stop working properly. You also run the risk that your heating/hot water won’t work at all.

Additionally, due to the reason for needing the Meter Exchange, any Smart Meter Opt-Out preferences will not apply as this is considered critical. Even if you’ve opted-out and turned off all marketing preferences, OVO is permitted to override, ignore and bypass them in cases where action is required from you in order to keep the basic services working at all, such as in the case of the RTS Shutdown.

You are allowed to ignore these warnings if you so choose. HOWEVER, doing so is entirely at your own risk. If you choose to refuse and your heating/hot water later breaks down when the RTS Signal is turned off or breaks completely, you’ll only have yourself to blame and you won’t be able to complain to OVO for not telling you about it upfront.

As it so happens, I was walking past Droitwich Transmission Station the other day and I noticed there was a tower on the ground. Not sure if it’s been taken down recently, or taken down a long time ago - or if it’s just a random pile of scrap metal or a spare tower that just lives on site. Either way, the valves powering the RTS Signal will expire soon - and once they do, it’s game over.

I don’t live anywhere near that place - it just happens to be that I was in the area that day for my own reasons.

I’m sorry, but your options are upgrade to Smart Meters, or break your heating/hot water systems.

As for the four million thing? That’s not totally true - the media has bamboozled you. See this discussion for a more accurate figure:

As for the April Fools jokes? There is only one user on the OVO Forum who’s ever been known for doing them - and that’s me. I would never pull one off related to something critical and in actual fact, I opted to not do one publicly the last couple of years as I felt doing so would have been in poor taste, mostly due to timing. Whether I return to that tradition this year remains to be seen.

Hi @Brian N 

As one of our volunteers has mentioned already, this is completely correct.

We’re working on a replacement solution at the moment and will update all impacted customers, and topic threads, when we have more information on such solution. 

The Radio Teleswich System shutdown is now due April 2025. We’ve got some similar topics on this that may be of interest to you:

I hope this has cleared things up for you a little more.