ScottishPower not so smart meters

rnem170

Just checked my bill and online account and discovered that my last two bills have been estimated. How is that possible if I have smart meters?

I manually submitted readings and I've gone from £100 in debit to over £300 in debit!.

House_Martin

Colder than usual winter is probably the reason you are behind your usual direct debit level.It has nothing to do with what type of meter you have but more to do with how cold its been from November to April.
My account is in a similar position and now I m in debit of around £100 after the Spring review and will either top up the difference or accept Eons higher dd.
Central heating boiler will not be going on again until October though and I ll soon catch up.
If you have Scottish Power smart meters why are you manually submitting readings ?
Possibly that is why their system has switched to estimates.
There is no reason why anyone should bombard suppliers with readings more often than once a quarter
.Monthly readings are totally unnecessary and will not be used anyway to bring up bills.
On my rounds meter reading I met a few oddballs who were sending readings off, and wasting their time, every week sending readings off to be ignored by their supplier..
Before the WWW. came into existence all suppliers are happy at 4 reads a year and 4 of the big 6 are happy at twice a year

System

rnem170 wrote: »

Just checked my bill and online account and discovered that my last two bills have been estimated. How is that possible if I have smart meters?

I manually submitted readings and I've gone from £100 in debit to over £300 in debit!.

The most likely reason is that your smart meters have lost mobile contact with the supplier. My advice would be to contact them and ask. The next generation of smart meters (SMETS2) will not have this problem as all smart meters will form a wide area net (WAN). If an individual meter loses contact, then your meter data will be passed from one smart meter to the next until a meter is found that has a datalink to the Data Communications Centre.

MeterMan

Something has obviously gone wrong with the communication of your smart meters, it can happen.

You have still used the the energy, its not like the smart meter being in communication would have cost you less money.

I had a brand new shiny smets2 gas and electric meter fitted only a month ago, and already the gas meter has stopped sending its readings off for whatever reason.

brewerdave

MeterMan wrote: »

I had a brand new shiny smets2 gas and electric meter fitted only a month ago, and already the gas meter has stopped sending its readings off for whatever reason.

...so, as many suspect, the uprated tech is not yet fit for purpose either:(

jackandcoke

brewerdave wrote: »

...so, as many suspect, the uprated tech is not yet fit for purpose either:(

Well considering most suppliers are still in the pilot phase for SMETS2, it doesn't surprise me as that's the whole point of a pilot. To draw out issues before mass deployment.

System

brewerdave wrote: »

...so, as many suspect, the uprated tech is not yet fit for purpose either:(

One of the key improvements with the SMETS2 range of meters is that they communicate across a wide area net (WAN) to get around the need for single meter connectivity with the supplier/data centre. This improvement will not work until there is a mass rollout of SMETS2 meters in any given area.

badmemory

so the uprated tech is NOT YET FIT for purpose - seems to sum up the whole fiasco. I'm sure they will be able to find some new problems to make gen 3 not work properly though!

System

badmemory wrote: »

so the uprated tech is NOT YET FIT for purpose - seems to sum up the whole fiasco. I'm sure they will be able to find some new problems to make gen 3 not work properly though!

I am not sure that I understand the point that you are making. The primary reason for the loss of connectivity is down to the choice of mobile carrier. Unlike SMETS1 meters which are supplier/mobile carrier dependent, SMETS2 meters do not need direct meter to data centre contact. Once deployed, the meters will establish a wide area network - a mesh if you like - so if any individual meter loses direct contact, the data is passed on from meter to meter until contact is established with The Data Communications Company. For this to work, SMETS2 meters need to be rolled out in numbers which has yet to happen.

There are other major flaws with the programme but I am not sure that this is one of them.

brewerdave

Hengus wrote: »

One of the key improvements with the SMETS2 range of meters is that they communicate across a wide area net (WAN) to get around the need for single meter connectivity with the supplier/data centre. This improvement will not work until there is a mass rollout of SMETS2 meters in any given area.

...but @ Hengus, the problem experienced by MeterMan appears to be that the gas meter is not communicating internally with the leccy meter as that then forwards the info. via WAN to the supplier.
Wonder if those being given SMETS2 compliant meters are being warned that initially they may struggle to communicate with the supplier ? I'll bet they aren't :rotfl:

System

brewerdave wrote: »

...but @ Hengus, the problem experienced by MeterMan appears to be that the gas meter is not communicating internally with the leccy meter as that then forwards the info. via WAN to the supplier.
Wonder if those being given SMETS2 compliant meters are being warned that initially they may struggle to communicate with the supplier ? I'll bet they aren't :rotfl:

Fair enough, I hadn't latched on to that particular point. As others have said, this is why pilot trials are needed.