Ongoing Npower billing nightmare

microstar

About 3.5 years ago I moved into an apartment with all-electric heating and a Heatwise meter, with electricity supplied by Npower.
A Heatwise meter is actually two-meters-in-one - it has two MPAN's. Its basically an Economy 7 meter plus another meter which supplies about 10 hours of lower-cost electricity in a 24 hour period (for heating).


The meter has five reading registers: Peak, Economy 7 off-peak, an 'error' register which always reads 0 and two 'Heat' registers which record consumption of the lower-cost 10 hours of power to the storage and water heaters.


Now I have had lots of fun and games with Npower because they keep putting the wrong readings against the various different tariffs. Usually this results in a very high bill. Npower are virtually impossible to deal with because nobody in the company understands how to bill me.


In 2015 I ended up going to Ofgem. Had a complaint upheld and received compensation. Npower actually sent an engineer out to look at my meter and how it was connected - to verify which reading was for which tariff. In 2016 more problems - complaint reopened and again resolved with some compensation.


Most of 2017 passed without incident. In January 2018 Npower read the meter and issued a correct bill. Then in March they issued an 'amended bill' (based on the January readings) but transposing the readings so that the bill was three times higher - basically billing the 'Heat' at Peak Rate (£330+ for one month in a one bedroom flat!). Someone in Npower decided to take that action weeks after the first (correct) bill was issued, and to me that amounts to fraud.
They refuse to accept the bill is incorrect so we are back to 'Executive Complaints' and I fully expect to have to go to Ofgem again.
This is an absolutely dreadful company. I am an electrical engineer with 30+ years of experience so I am 100% confident I will get this resolved eventually. Its very stressful and time consuming though.


What I need to know is how to escape Npower and their 'Heatwise' meter. Is there any company I can move to, get ride of the Heatwise and go with something more conventional like E10 ? Is there a company that can help me do this?

PaschalFun

microstar wrote: »

What I need to know is how to escape Npower and their 'Heatwise' meter.

Moving would be the simplest way

microstar wrote: »

Is there any company I can move to, get ride of the Heatwise and go with something more conventional like E10 ? Is there a company that can help me do this?

No

Katie-Kat-Kins

I am in the same position and I am currently emailing executive complaints regularly trying to convince them that my two heat registries should both be billed at off peak rates. They seem incapable of answering a straight question, it is so frustrating.


I have found out that M&S Energy will switch a heatwise meter for a standard E10 meter but I don't want to switch until my billing is correct so I haven't followed this up further. A standard E10 set up would be fine for me, but NPower don't fit these so I would have to change supplier. The best NPower will offer is to add all the readings together and bill as a standard single rate tariff.


I'm following with interest in case anyone else has any suggestions, either regarding ways to escape NPower or ways to explain to the how their own tariff should be applied!

Carrot007

microstar wrote: »

Is there any company I can move to, get ride of the Heatwise and go with something more conventional like E10 ? Is there a company that can help me do this?

No, E10 is also considered legacy anyway.

You are free to move to any current meter you like (Basically single rate or E7). But it will cost and you will likely need work doing on your side as well.

molerat

You can move to any of the major suppliers on a single rate tariff at no cost or change of metering under the Energy Market Restricted Meters Order 2016 rules. This cannot be done through comparison sites though as you will need to speak to a specialist team and a single rate may not be suitable for your use. Anything else will involve a change of meter and may involve some wiring changes at your cost.

microstar

Katie-Kat-Kins wrote: »

I am in the same position and I am currently emailing executive complaints regularly trying to convince them that my two heat registries should both be billed at off peak rates. They seem incapable of answering a straight question, it is so frustrating.


I have found out that M&S Energy will switch a heatwise meter for a standard E10 meter but I don't want to switch until my billing is correct so I haven't followed this up further. A standard E10 set up would be fine for me, but NPower don't fit these so I would have to change supplier. The best NPower will offer is to add all the readings together and bill as a standard single rate tariff.


I'm following with interest in case anyone else has any suggestions, either regarding ways to escape NPower or ways to explain to the how their own tariff should be applied!

That's useful information, thank you. As soon as I get my Npower billing corrected I will contact M&S Energy. I don't even mind paying a slightly higher tariff, so long as it can be correctly billed. Npower are staggeringly incompetent, probably the worst organisation I have ever dealt with.

microstar

molerat wrote: »

You can move to any of the major suppliers on a single rate tariff at no cost or change of metering under the Energy Market Restricted Meters Order 2016 rules..

That may be the theory. In practise all the energy suppliers I have contacted so far (about 6) will not allow me to move. As soon as I say I have Heatwise they say I must get my present supplier to do a meter swap first and then later I can switch supplier.