Why has OVO exaggerated my projected usage estimates after I got a new meter?

Hi there @martinkressman .

I’m sorry to hear of the trouble there. This doesn’t sound as if it matches up with what most members experience. If you’re unhappy with the service, I would definitely recommend taking this up via OVO’s Complaints Process which is really good at handling these things.

It’s worth noting however that the estimates are not always going to be perfect and if it turns out you’re using less energy than predicted, the billing platform will identify this and should react by reducing the recommended payments to suit. Either way, you do also have the right to refund any spare credit at anytime, provided you leave enough in there to cover one months worth of payments. The platform is designed to factor in things like using more energy in winter and less in summer, along with the aim of balancing out your payments so that you end the year in credit but without being excessively in credit.

It’s not a perfect science though, and you do have the option to request a review at anytime. If you let the Support Team know that you disagree with the calculations, they can review it manually and override the system if needed. The complaints team are extremely good at resolving complaints within the five day target time too.

However, in the event that you aren’t able to resolve the complaint via OVO’s internal process, you also have the option of escalating to the Office of the Energy Ombudsman. You need to reach deadlock with OVO first before you can go to the Ombudsman however. While OVO does prefer to resolve complaints much faster than that and without having to go to the Energy Ombudsman, they will fully co-operate with the Ombudsman if needed.

I hope this helps. Please bear in mind that as I’m only a forum volunteer, I don’t have the ability to access your account or make changes directly.

Thanks

I appreciate that estimates are not always going to be perfect but a 48% over-estimate is far from perfect. I requested a review but my messages were ignored. It was only after OVO Energy threatened to compulsorily raise my Direct Debit and in view of my persistence did they start to engage with me.

In the middle of May, even after overriding the system, OVO Energy still tried to justify the exaggerated amount.

Everything you describe is what is supposed to happen but the system failed to be able to cope with November’s meter exchange. I therefore believe that this is likely to be a widespread problem in view of all the meter exchanges resulting from the roll out of Smart meters.

I’ve actually gone through a recent Meter Exchange myself actually, the second in two years so I know the process well.

Back in 2018 when I was still with SSE, I got my first smart meter upgrade to a SMETS1 Aclara SGM1311 that came with me when I switched to OVO in September last year. It was right around that exact point that my meter had just started to trigger the firmware upgrade to SMETS2 firmware and initiated the Enrolment & Adoption process to DCC, in order to run like a SMETS2 meter and be able to connect to OVO. It did work and eventually connected, but some other issues later resulted in a second MEX towards the end of April. I’m now on a SMETS2 Aclara SGM1411-B.

I’ve not had any of the issues you describe and in actual fact the system regularly suggests that I reduce my payments due to low usage, but I override and force it to keep them as-is because I prefer to build up spare credit. As a result of two successful MEX jobs in three years with two different suppliers and going from Traditional > SMETS1 > SMETS1+ (via firmware upgrade and E&A) > SMETS2, I’m afraid I would personally disagree with your claims. This forum is also pretty active and we’d be seeing a lot more complaints if it was a more widespread issue. I’ve basically gone all the way through all the upgrade routes and know them all well.

However, I do agree that 48% is a bit of an edge case and shouldn’t happen. I don’t agree that a smart meter would have caused this, but I do agree that it probably shouldn’t be happening.

I’ll see if @Jess_OVO is around though as she might be able to flag this sort of thing up for further review. Hopefully this can be resolved and if you have this reviewed manually, someone should be able to resolve the discrepancy.

My meter is a traditional meter, not a Smart meter. I imagine that a Smart meter could have the same issues as me, however. Can a Smart meter access readings prior to its installation, which a traditional meter cannot?

My meter is a traditional five outlet meter not a Smart meter. I was only enquiring whether my problem could affect Smart meters as well.

Ooh ok. Sorry about that!

As far as I’m aware, if your usage has remained about the same, it shouldn’t cause issues like this even without a smart meter. It’s unlikely that you’ll have a traditional meter if it was replaced in November 2020 though, as suppliers don’t install them anymore outside of very, very rare edge cases at best. And that list is pretty small.

It shouldn’t affect any meter, but smart meters are theoretically less vulnerable due to the fact they all keep usage data stored locally for review if needed. Traditional meters can’t do this.

When a Meter Exchange takes place, the billing platform is designed to factor in the final readings from the old meter and the starting readings from the new meter when doing the number crunching. As long as you didn’t accidentally submit a bad reading in the meantime - which should fail validation anyway - your account should sync up properly when the process completes. The old meter readings are archived as part of the process but remain available on your previous bills and on request.

The only other thing that I can think of which would cause a huge change is if you hadn’t put meter readings in for a very long time and OVO had to rely on estimates - which are never going to be as good as actual readings. If an actual reading goes in, this will correct the account but can swing it massively into credit or debit depending on how close the estimates were.

As I have stated it is a traditional 5 outlet meter.

The billing platform has clearly failed in this case as it did NOT factor in the the final readings from the old meter. Every monthly reading I have submitted for the last 28 months have been totally accurate.

The following formed part of a reply from OVO Energy earlier this month: “ I can also see that we have raised a case on your account as since you had a meter exchange in late November, your EAC is around 7000 more than it was previously leading to the Direct Debit communications asking for erroneous figures. This is still ongoing and there is no timeframe for this issue to be resolved.”

Sorry for our misunderstanding there, @martinkressman. I’ve updated the title and my original comment to reflect this.

Unfortunately this appears to confirm my original suspicion that this is a tech issue with our new billing platform which is distorting how your projected usage is calculated. I’m really sorry that this is not the answer you were hoping for and there is no quick-fix for this issue. As our Support Team have already advised we can over-ride any erroneous direct debit suggestions which may result but it’s worth keeping an eye on the Future annual consumption figure on the ‘Plan’ page of your online account as this will naturally correct itself the more readings we get from your new meter -

Let us know if you see any changes to this figure as you submit your monthly reads...

I quote “As our Support Team have already advised we can over-ride any erroneous direct debit suggestions which may result ...”

OVO Energy’s Support Team ignored my approaches until after a threatening message was sent advising that my Direct Debit was going to be compulsorily increased. They eventually put a halt to this but still have not provided a manual calculation. They merely provide statements such as “your payment should be fine.” Clearly, there is a major issue with the software but the support team say that they do not intend to rectify it. Why must I once again be used as an unpaid tester of OVO Energy’s systems?

For your information the Future annual consumption figure has reduced slightly from 22933 kWh on 10/5/21 to 21813 kWh today. Last year I used 16180kWh.