Crossed electricity Meter

tbads

Hi I was wondering if anybody could help me please. 

I think I may have a crossed electricity meters at my property. We moved in over 4 years ago and never changed our supplier. I was looking to change supplier recently but when I came to put my serial number in it was coming up as being registered at the wrong address. I did some digging and it seems we have the incorrect MPAN number registered to our bill and they are investigating a crossed meter. When I called UK power networks to find out our correct MPAN number they have given me a number which is registered to a supply which was a temporary supply for a build in the area and was cut off in 2014. 

I have been monitoring my meter for the last month or so and it seems I am being billed for more electricity than I am using and I have confirmed this by going back using an old bill and comparing my readings to how many units I  have been charged for on my bill. 

I’m almost certain they are crossed but what I need help with is how do I go about getting this sorted? I want to change suppliers but can’t do this until it’s sorted and in the meantime i am overpaying for the supply that I have.

We have a small 2 bed property and are paying  £175 per month for the gas and electric (the gas is into around £450
per year). They estimate that we use 9000 kWh per year. I have spoken to a number of people since this happened who have all said this seems to be a lot for a small 2 bed property and we are only here 50% of the time too. 

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

KathysBoy

This has happened to me twice, and it took me a lot of calls and time to sort it out. One problem may be that the meters are with different suppliers, and only the supplier which has the MPAN registered can change it. Have you asked them the address that is recorded for the MPAN number on your meter, and whether they are the supplier ? 

We have a 4 bedroom property, and there are two of us, here all the time, and on average we use between 8 and 9 kWh per day, so about 3,000 per annum. We have gas central heating.

Gerry1

tbads said:

They estimate that we use 9000 kWh per year.

For a property that also has gas, Ofgems's Typical Domestic Consumption Values for Electricity are

Low 1800kWh, Medium 2900kWh, High 4300kWh.

QrizB

tbads said:

We have a small 2 bed property and are paying  £175 per month for the gas and electric (the gas is into around £450
per year). They estimate that we use 9000 kWh per year. I have spoken to a number of people since this happened who have all said this seems to be a lot for a small 2 bed property and we are only here 50% of the time too. 

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

If your property is all electric, 9000kWh/yr sounds about right.

[Deleted User]

Be wary of the term crossed meter. When a property is built it is normally allocated a plot number along with a MPAN for electricity and MPRN for gas. As meters are installed, they are linked to the MPAN/MPRN. It follows that the most likely scenario is that the plot number has been allocated to an incorrect postal address. This happened on my small development. My MPAN/MPRN were installed in plot 6 which became No 6 on the two databases. Plot 14 was registered as my address (ie, No 14) et seq.

What needs to happen is that the databases need to be changed to your address. Doing this will impact your neighbours. Whatever you do DO NOT delink the meter serial numbers from the MPAN/MPRNs. 

On a small development of 14 houses, it took SP nearly 6 months to sort out the problem.

QrizB

If you have access to the meter you think is yours, you can take readings and compare them to the billed values - you may have done this already, if so what did you discover?

You can also do a couple of tests:

• First, look at the meter. There's likely to be a flashing red LED labelled "1000/kWh" or similar.
  
• Blackout test. Switch everything off that you possibly can, including the fridge/freezer. Look at the LED for a couple of minutes. It should hve stopped flashing.
• Load test. Switch your kettle, toaster or electric oven on. The LED should start flashing furiously (for a kettle, one flash every 1 or 2 seconds).

If the meter behaves as described, you're probably looking at the correct meter. If not, the meter you're looking at isn't yours.

[Deleted User]

QrizB said:

If you have access to the meter you think is yours, you can take readings and compare them to the billed values - you may have done this already, if so what did you discover?

You can also do a couple of tests:

• First, look at the meter. There's likely to be a flashing red LED labelled "1000/kWh" or similar.
  
• Blackout test. Switch everything off that you possibly can, including the fridge/freezer. Look at the LED for a couple of minutes. It should hve stopped flashing.
• Load test. Switch your kettle, toaster or electric oven on. The LED should start flashing furiously (for a kettle, one flash every 1 or 2 seconds).

If the meter behaves as described, you're probably looking at the correct meter. If not, the meter you're looking at isn't yours.

I think that you may have misunderstood. They have a property with meters that are correctly recording their usage. The problem is that A N Other is paying their bill and more than likely they are paying the bill for meters that are in another property. This happens when MPAN /MPRNs are not properly registered.. Turning things off only works when there are a number of meters in, say, a cupboard in an apartment block. 

QrizB

I may well have misunderstood! The OP doesn't state whether they are in a house or a flat, but does say:

tbads said:

I have been monitoring my meter for the last month or so and it seems I am being billed for more electricity than I am using and I have confirmed this by going back using an old bill and comparing my readings to how many units I  have been charged for on my bill.

The OP might want to confirm that they are reading the correct meter, if there's any possibility that they aren't.

It also makes me wonder where the OP's energy supplier has been getting their billing meter readings from, if they aren't ones supplied by the OP?

Robin9

tbads said:

I have been monitoring my meter for the last month or so and it seems I am being billed for more electricity than I am using and I have confirmed this by going back using an old bill and comparing my readings to how many units I  have been charged for on my bill. 

If the meter records are wrong so will the bills so it's no point in looking at old bills.

tbads

KathysBoy said:

This has happened to me twice, and it took me a lot of calls and time to sort it out. One problem may be that the meters are with different suppliers, and only the supplier which has the MPAN registered can change it. Have you asked them the address that is recorded for the MPAN number on your meter, and whether they are the supplier ? 

We have a 4 bedroom property, and there are two of us, here all the time, and on average we use between 8 and 9 kWh per day, so about 3,000 per annum. We have gas central heating.

Thank you for your reply, apologies it took me so long to reply, I’m new to this forum!  We had gas central heating and electricity. The MPAN for our property is registered to a property down the road which is a 4 bed detached, with 4 receptions rooms so pretty big in comparison to our small 2 bed semi detached. 

How did you resolve the issue and what was the outcome please? 

tbads

Gerry1 said:

tbads said:

They estimate that we use 9000 kWh per year.

For a property that also has gas, Ofgems's Typical Domestic Consumption Values for Electricity are

Low 1800kWh, Medium 2900kWh, High 4300kWh.

Thank you for your reply, apologies it took me so long to reply, I’m new to this forum!  Thank you, o did see this is this is one of the things that made me question our usage.