Why are OVO disabling the real-time smart usage features!?

I just received the mail titled "We're turning off your real-time smart usage features "
is this some kind of late April fool joke ?

This is surely one of the key benefits of a smart meter over a dumb meter - to allow the user to review and compare their usage over different time periods as well as see live data ?
The IHD is not portable so I use my phone to see what affect turning on/off devices has on usage. I cant run back to the kitchen every time !

How is this progress ? Yes, the features are not reliable lately but surely the response is to spend some effort fix them rather than disabling them completely !

what next then
- submit your meter readings online because the smart meter cant communicate reliably ?
- Send round a meter reading human because your website no longer works reliably ?!

😠

Here's a copy of an email I have just sent to OVO regarding this issue. I am really disappointed!

Thank you for the email explaining that you are turning off my real-time
smart usage features .

I have to say that I am very disappointed that this is going to happen as I always found the live usage data and daily usage displayed in My Ovo extremely useful.
I have solar panels and it is most beneficial to be able to see how much energy is being exported to the grid and make decisions about using high energy consuming equipment (dish washer/washing machine etc) in the home depending on the amount being exported at any particular moment.

I made the decision to remain with OVO after my last contract with you expired because of the Smart gateway features even though there were several cheaper suppliers available. The extra money seemed reasonable for the features which the Smart gateway offered.
I am on a panel of volunteers who report levels of satisfaction with energy suppliers to Which magazine and have always given first rate feedback about OVO. I will be reporting my dissatisfaction to Which regarding this issue.

I notice you write that you "have decided it's better to turn these features off until we can offer you something better." Better for whom please? I certainly do not regard this as an improvement to the level of service you offer me.

Perhaps you can explain when the "something better" might occur? Can you please assure me that I will be given the opportunity to partake in "something better" as soon as it is available or is this promise merely to placate annoyed customers?

In the meantime can you please arrange for me to have an IHD as i do not currently have one?

Thank you for your attention.

I look forward to your response to my questions.

This was one of the reasons I switched to OVO. I can't believe they don't have the resources to fix this, after all it works most/some of the time and is really useful - surely a couple of decent software engineers and a couple of weeks should be enough (I manage a software team developing web applications so have some knowledge of this type of product).

I suspect there is some other reason: privacy concerns? Security? Cost?

Poor show OVO.

Part of reply from OVO

The reason that we have decided to remove this feature was due to it giving incorrect information to too many of our customers. As a business we would like our customers to be receiving correct information. This feature has been taken away so we can work on offering our customers a better experience. You are still able to see your usage on your historic and half hourly usage feature.
So removing the feature is in OVO's opinion a "better experience". How does that work?
It really is a poor show!

I have to say I am gutted after reading the ovo email explaining that you are turning off my real-time
smart usage features .
This is one of the reasons I signed up with OVO again.
So as I used the home gateway device. What do i do now ? I do not have an IHD.
Very disappointed with this OVO.

I have had the smart gateway for a very long time, and it has worked perfectly apart from a short period at the start. I am extremely disappointed with the latest news as an IHD is not portable. I check on my laptop at my convenience not when I remember to look at the IHD.The gateway and the interest payments from OVO are a big factor in choosing my supplier. I look forward to seeing what better solution OVO can come up with, and lets hope it is not too far in the future.

I'm disappointed to, it completely goes against the idea of smart metering. Chameleon market the IHD3 as a portable unit, but the one OVO provide isn't, and has to remain plugged in. It also doesn't give realtime gas consumption, unlike the realtime data provided.

This is also going to have a severe knock on effect to my central heating, which I use realtime consumption figures to dynamically adjust heating requirements to help keep the costs down even more.

I used to use Loop Energy devices prior to the move to a Smart Meter, which gave a somewhat accurate realtime feed which I could use for my heating system, but the Loop devices are incompatible with the smart meters due to the display, so it's not like I can even go back to that.

My only other option is to either get OVO to open up the HAN and allow us to pair our own CAD devices, or request the smart meters are ripped out & put standard units back in place... Either way, the whole reason for me joining OVO was for the real time data feed, so now what's the point in remaining?

I expect that they significantly underestimated the number of people wanting "Real Time" rather than the 30 minute option. Their scaling of the data repository and analytics capability for reporting over that amount of data would be quite significant.

Unfortunately they have probably been a victim of their success, but if the team running this element state that they did not see this coming then they really are amateur. There should have been proper capacity and scalability planning in place and identified the appropriate vendors both from a storage and analytics perspective who could cater for their customers needs.

Unfortunately I worry that the statement "it's better to turn these features off until we can offer you something better" will morph into "we have turned these features off and hope you forget that you ever had them"..........

Oh, and the OVO statement "(we) have decided it's better to turn these features off until we can offer you something better" may turn into "I have decided to leave OVO until you can offer you something better."

See, the only issue I can see is that the aggregated data for a set period is unavailable, real time usage data is still available and working just fine:



The feed for current realtime values, and estimated usage amounts is still present, which is more than enough. Why turn *all* of this of, instead of just still allowing realtime data to be fed in & viewed? At least then this gives us *something* to go on for those who still rely on realtime metrics.