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My gas smart meter needs to be 'commissioned' - What does this mean?

  • 5 November 2017
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Hi, I had a smart meter system installed just over a week ago. A few days later it was apparent that the gas meter was not connecting via the HAN (no readings on IHD, pressing 0 on the meter displays "Commission?"). I called OVO and was told a Lowri-Beck engineer would be in touch. I called again the other day and was told this could take up to ten working days as I was on an "ad hoc" list. What does this actually mean? The CSA I spoke to wasn't very clear.
I'm very annoyed by this. I took time off work to have the meters fitted and now I'm having to wait for an engineer to call me at a random time to arrange an appointment to come and fix a pairing issue. Everything in your organisation assumes everything will go right first time. If something goes wrong the customer is basically ignored and palmed off with "don't call us, some contractor will call you....". Your advisor helpfully told me I could still submit gas readings by reading the meter. Great! Just like I never bothered to take time off work and have the smart meters fitted at all.
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Best answer by Tim_OVO 1 December 2022, 10:57

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Not sure if anyone else has experienced this issue but in early November I had both gas and electricity smart meteres installed. The engineer was here for 4 hours and eventually reported that he had given up on trying to get the gas meter working. He stated I would need to log another engineer visit to try and resolve the issue….he also stated it was the 3rd gas meter install that had not been succesful that day!

I was fine with logging another visit but I didn’t think it would have to be so painful. I had to convince the OVO team my install was not successful and eventually they arranged a re-visit in December, which is now postponed until late Jan. What I dont understand is why its down to the customer to follow up on a failed installation as  this should all fall under the original installation request as and unfinished  request and not be treated as a new install visit, which is down to the customer to arrange. I hate to think how many other customers have ended up with unfinished installations and have had to covince the OVO team to get an engineer back on-site to complete the install.

I am sure for industry reporting purposes my installation adds to the total smart meter installed stats but bit of a farce when you end up with meters that provide no smart benefits😪

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Hey there @M550344 ,

I’m really sorry to hear about your bad experience. I don’t work for OVO myself and as I’m only a forum volunteer, I can’t access your account.

What I can do however, is notify the forum moderators about this thread and ask them to feed it back to internal teams. I admit that this might not help you much, but I’m hopeful that it might help others avoid this issue later.

Please bear with me, this may take a few hours but I’ll make sure they get to see this.

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Thanks for your assistance….it just seems a strange install process with no allowance for the supplier to follow up with installation company on failed installations. I also sent a complaint to OVO about my experience to date and waiting on their response.

Userlevel 7
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No worries.

It is a bit strange and I agree with you. Just one question if that’s OK. Do you know if the engineer who did the install was from OVO/SSE directly, or a contractor like SMS or Lowri Beck? This could help to identify possible options.

Userlevel 7
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Just an update for you. I’m currently discussing this thread backstage with the forum moderators. I’ll either have another update for you soon, or the moderators will provide some more information.

Hang in there for now! I’ll be back when I can.

Userlevel 7

Updated on 14/12/22 by Tim_OVO:

 

‘Commissioning’ a smart meter allows the meter to link up to the network and begin sending the readings to us automatically. The engineer should commission the smart meters during your installation but occasionally this might not be possible, so a follow up visit may be required.

 

How to check whether your meters are commissioned?

 

You can check whether your Secure S1 Smart meter is commissioned by following the steps below:

  • Press '0' on the meter's keypad. (This applies for both the electricity and gas.)
  • If a meter has been commissioned correctly, the meter display will begin to cycle through various screens; starting with the date and time.
  • If a meter has not been commissioned, displayed on the screen will be 'COMMISSION - YES OR NO'. (This will be abbreviated.)

 

On an Aclara S2 meter, check the meter is commissioned by checking the electricity smart meter communications hub (at the top of the meter). If the HAN light is not flashing, this suggests that it hasn’t been commissioned. Further to this, on the screen itself, a commissioned meter would have a signal bar and "HAN" written on it to indicate connection.

 

Non-commissioned Meter(s)

 

If you notice your meter is not sending us readings or may not have been commissioned, complete the smart meter health check form online and the results will go straight to the right team. You can find out more about the smart meter health checks in these helpful guides: 

 

Second generation (S2) Aclara smart meter health check (SMHC)

First generation (S1) Secure smart meter health check (SMHC)

 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

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Hi the gas meter buttons are responsive and I can submit readings as required. My original post was to highlight the question as to how failed installations are managed as there appears to be a missing process for these installations where an engineer has not been able to complete the installation and to get an engineer back out to correct the issue, is booked as a new installation?

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It’s usually best to flag those to the Support Team. If the engineers report is available, it’ll flag up the failure and the agent you speak to can help you to re-book to finish the job.

Having a similar problem, not with OVO, the gas meter SMETS2 was installed by AES and was never commissioned by the energy provider, with all the hassle I switched to another provider who tell me they do not have the “codes” to perform the commissioning and it will need a new meter install ( this will be the 3rd meter exchange this year) my questions are,  1. who is responsible for the commisssioning, the installer or the energy provider as AES tell me its the energy provider? 2. what are these codes and can a new energy provider undertake the commissioning if the codes are known? 3. who provides said codes, installer or energy provider? 4. my Honeywell gas meter has a menu system with a raft of data held within, are these codes available from the meter?

Hope some or all of this makes sense, it would be great to get some independent advice

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The responsibility for commissioning lies with the installing engineer. They use the DCC commissioning app to do so. That app is the ONLY thing capable of commissioning S2 meters and no-one else has access to it.

5 flats fitted with 5 Smart meters fitted to supply cupboard in basement, but no signal coming out - what can be done to boost signal??

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Hi @charlesyo ,

I can try to advise on that, but please show us photos of the meters first. Forum Volunteers like myself can’t access your account, so we’ll need those photos to identify your setups.

Thanks!

 

Userlevel 7
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Hmm… It’s not even commissioned properly…

You’ll need to get an engineer out. Try https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com for this. That form should sort this out for you.

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