Energy websites crash as customers rush to submit their meter readings - DON'T panic, you have time

badmemory

I do miss People's Energy.  Read the meters on the 13th every month.  Not the last day of the month because the websites are always busy as indeed am I.  Put the readings on their site - 1 hour later print off my bill.  Trying to get a bill from British gas is like getting blood from a stone.  3 times I've been asked to enter readings so they can produce a bill over the last 3 months & I have done so promptly.  Still no bill yet.  Took them 3 months to set up a DD.  Last time I spoke to them they asked me to do a survey & for once I said yes.  I think they may regret it, but I carefully didn't swear.

seatbeltnoob

I refuse to believe these websites are down by people submitting meter readings.

This is complete nonsense I believe they have deliberately pulled their websites down to stop people from putting meter readings which may or may not read a lot higher than true readings.

MattMattMattUK

seatbeltnoob said:

I refuse to believe these websites are down by people submitting meter readings.

That would be completely irrational. 

seatbeltnoob said:

This is complete nonsense I believe they have deliberately pulled their websites down to stop people from putting meter readings which may or may not read a lot higher than true readings.

Lots of people submitted a reading on the 30th to be safe, those that did not manage yesterday will today or tomorrow, making little difference overall. If people submit obviously inflated readings then they will likely find them rejected and asked to supply photographic evidence and if they do not then it will fall back to estimates. There is no benefit to the suppliers to this, however it is hardly unsurprising that if 28 million people are trying to access websites which normally get a few tens of thousands on any one day then there would be service issues. 

datostar

Couldn't get on to E.On's site to supply meter readings at all yesterday but managed at 6.30am today - working very smoothly.

The_Green_Hornet

EDF have just implemented a queuing system on their My Account Login web page.

https://my.edfenergy.com/user/login



I expect the other suppliers will follow suit.

Gerry1

The_Green_Hornet said:

EDF have just implemented a queuing system on their My Account Login web page.

https://my.edfenergy.com/user/login

I expect the other suppliers will follow suit.

Unfortunately it's made very little difference.

Yup, now you have to queue only to find it still doesn't work properly. 

The_Green_Hornet

Gerry1 said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

EDF have just implemented a queuing system on their My Account Login web page.

https://my.edfenergy.com/user/login

I expect the other suppliers will follow suit.

Unfortunately it's made very little difference.

Yup, now you have to queue only to find it still doesn't work properly. 

Works properly for me.

MrsStepford

Husband read meters (both EDF) on 31/03, couldn't get on the website. He was able to get on, on 01/04 and input readings with date of 31/03. He says I'm worrying too much as he arranged fixed rate last year but I've read so many horror stories that I'm getting stressed. Should I worry so much ?

QrizB

MrsStepford said:

Husband read meters (both EDF) on 31/03, couldn't get on the website. He was able to get on, on 01/04 and input readings with date of 31/03. He says I'm worrying too much as he arranged fixed rate last year but I've read so many horror stories that I'm getting stressed. Should I worry so much ?

No, it's not a concern if you're still on a fixed tariff from last year. In your case the reading that matters will be the one at the end of your tariff.

prowla

k_man said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Don't panic says the website that helped cause the panic in the first place.

It has highlighted a couple of things though.

1) The suppliers' websites are woefully under specified for traffic volumes
2) Customers don't regularly submit end of month meter readings

Designing a system with enough capacity for the spike of traffic today would be overkill for the rest of the year.

Especially when the traffic increased again, as a result of the MSM coverage of this, as previously unaware users rush to submit before the perceived deadline.

The next price cap rise may include a line item for increasing system capacity to cope with the next rise date!

With hindsight the message from MSE should have been to make a note of the meter reading, just in case, rather than make sure you submit today (which is actually a day early anyway).
And the power companies should have sent out a message in anticipation.

In this day & age you don't size a system to cope with the anticipated peak - you spec it to autoscale up & down based on workload.