Smart Meter Issue - Should I submit a manual meter reading

rjmachin

I am on Octopus Go Faster and have an Electric Vehicle that I charge during the cheap hours.

I am one of at least a few people (I have seen a few on this forum) whose smart meter stopped sending usage data to the energy company at 1am on the 9th May 2022.

I have asked and chased my energy company, Octopus, and now after 9 weeks have still not heard from their smart meter team.  They are supposed to be trying to restart/reboot the meter, however, the lack of communication and not being able to speak directly to the smart meter team means I have to just email octopus and they say they are still waiting and will let me know when they have a response.

My last manual reading was in January this year, and bills since show usage rather than the reading (though I am sure they have the readings in the background).

Should I take a manual reading and submit it?  I am not sure if they would charge all at the higher rate, or spread it based on the average ratio from previous bills of cheap / higher rate.

I know they are not supposed to, but I have an electrician coming later today for a separate task, and I don't know if he would be willing, but if I asked him to pull the main fuse, would that restart the smart meter?

I have a Landis+Gyr E470 Smets 2 smart meter like the one pictured half way down this page (not the top one): https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/landis-and-gyr-e470-smart-meters

matelodave

IMO you should check your meter and your billls every single month and if necessary send in a meter reading if the bills and meter readings aren't correct. Do not rely on the meter working properly or the billing to be correct. The longer you leave it the more out of sync it becomes and the harder it it to sort it all out.

Hopefully your meter should be able to store it's data for a reasonable amount of time - I can get monthly data going back 13 months however I'm not sure how clever a multitarrif meter is in storing data for the different charging periods so it could be difficult to work out accurate costs - have you been logging data yourself of just hoping that it will be alright in the end.

I still take and log my own readings, even though my smart meter is sending data and the billing is correct, just in case it goes awry in the future .Being with five failed energy companies has made me very untrusting and its been so much easier to get the billing sorted out especially when their accounting systems or on-line accounts have been closed down.

MWT

matelodave said:

Hopefully your meter should be able to store it's data for a reasonable amount of time - I can get monthly data going back 13 months however I'm not sure how clever a multitarrif meter is in storing data for the different charging periods so it could be difficult to work out accurate costs - have you been logging data yourself of just hoping that it will be alright in the end.

It will store the 48 half-hour totals daily for each of the 4 import registers for 13 months, so best to let Octopus retrieve that data rather than do any billing based on manual readings as that would be billed at the standard variable tariff, not at the 'Go' rates as per the T&C's.

QrizB

matelodave said:

IMO you should check your meter and your billls every single month and if necessary send in a meter reading if the bills and meter readings aren't correct.

This is good advice in general but might not help in this particular case as Go Faster requires 30-minute billing.

Hopefully your meter should be able to store it's data for a reasonable amount of time

I think the SMETS2 spec requires consumption data to be stored for 13 months.

There was a problem last year with a firmware update on Kaifa MA120 meters which broke 30-minute billing (some details here). It took several months to fix but Octopus was able to recover the data and bill Go / Go Faster customers accurately.

Alnat1

I had a similar problem after a new electric L&G E470 was fitted on 8th June and Octopus weren't getting readings. I'm on Tracker V3 for import and Agile Outgoing for export so 30 minute readings needed.

I'd chased twice by email, responses like you, we're looking into it. Yesterday I rang to chase, seems I got lucky with a good advisor who quickly understood the problem. She asked me to hold while she chatted with the smart team. 10 minutes later she came back and said the team were working on it and would be in touch.

This morning all the data is showing in my account and a bill has been generated and shows all the backdated 30 minute readings. I'm assuming they have a backlog of queries and my phone call pulled mine up to the top of the list.

I also asked the very nice lady if I could move on to Agile for supply once the problem was sorted and I can see that is already happening.

My advice to you, give them a call, it might just work.

rjmachin

Yes, I am keeping my own records of the readings and have £705 credit on my account, and estimate between £300 (based on average unit cost) and £400 (higher unit cost) for usage between 2nd May and today, 22nd July.

My last bill covered up to 1st May.

[Deleted User]

As posters on this forum have latched on to the ‘cap’ of 35p/kWh on the Agile tariff, I suspect that many do not understand just how fragile 30 minute usage billing can be. On occasions this has been down to issues at TMA (Octopus’ out-sourced Adapter provider); meter firmware issues or comms/network issues. 

I was one of those whose billing became extremely erratic after a series of Kaifa meter firmware updates. Import stopped; import came back and then export stopped, followed by a period when both import and export stopped. Octopus, I believe, struggled with Kaifa as only Octopus’ customers were affected by the problem. The meter still returned index readings.

Pulling the main fuse for 15 minutes will re-boot the communications hub; however, unless your electrician has the approval of your DNO then you might end up with issues. Only DNOs and meter installers are allowed to break the security seal. They can also fit an approved replacement seal.

Finally, if your Octopus account is showing two meter readings, then 
Octopus should be able to bill you for Go/Go Faster without the 30 minute usage data. However, you need to take care. My readings in My Account show clearly that my GF Offpeak usage is being recorded on the R1 register (labelled peak in My Account) and peak is on R2.

oldagetraveller1

My Fixed Tariff from e.onNext was dependent on having "smart" meters fitted. I have had to submit readings manually each month since for an up to date bill.

I did contact them and was told my billing date was the 20th of the month and a bill would be generated then, using the readings they had received from said meters. Really? I'm still waiting.

I don't mind submitting monthly readings, done it for years, but I thought the idea of these things was to stop the need for that?

Therefore, other than two nice new shiny plastic boxes and a display device stuffed in a drawer, what's the point?!

MWT

oldagetraveller1 said:

I don't mind submitting monthly readings, done it for years, but I thought the idea of these things was to stop the need for that?

... and for millions of customers that is exactly how it works

On here, as you would expect, we are more likely to hear from those with problems than the vastly larger number of those without problems...

matelodave

QrizB said:

matelodave said:

IMO you should check your meter and your billls every single month and if necessary send in a meter reading if the bills and meter readings aren't correct.

This is good advice in general but might not help in this particular case as Go Faster requires 30-minute billing.

Hopefully your meter should be able to store it's data for a reasonable amount of time

I think the SMETS2 spec requires consumption data to be stored for 13 months.

There was a problem last year with a firmware update on Kaifa MA120 meters which broke 30-minute billing (some details here). It took several months to fix but Octopus was able to recover the data and bill Go / Go Faster customers accurately.

I'm guessing that Octopus use the DCC, in which case you might be able to check your meters by using the Bright app. (look for it in the Apple app store or Google Play)

 I'm sitting in a caravan in Derbyshire at the moment and can see the halfhourly figures for 23rd May 2021 from my meter which is in Cambridgeshire. Not evre so useful for me bit it does show that the data should be lurking in the system somewhere

rjmachin

For me, the Bright App, n3rgy website nor the octopus website are showing my energy usage.

The smart meter communication hub seems to have the issue, with a WAN connection fault.  

Another customer but with Bulb Energy has the same issue (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79263654).

On that same thread, a Shell customer also has issues from the same date.

Possibly a firmware rollout was attempted.  I am hoping a remote fix will resolve it.