Help needed with understanding smart meter and registers

alicef

Hi all

Inspired by @eastcorkram recent post I'm hoping that forumites with a good of grasp of the workings of smart meters can help me out here as I have put in a complaint with BGas about the discrepancy in the reading they are taking from from meter and the meter reading I am supplying them with.

Okay some facts

The electricity meter is a SMETS1 Liberty 100 
It was installed April 2016 - I can't remember which supplier I was with at the time - might have been Ovo
Once I switched away from the supplier of 2016 the meter wasn't 'smart', I had to supply meter readings for all subsequent suppliers until August of this year when BGas set my meter from 'dumb' mode to smart 
I have never been on an economy 7 tariff
I have always pressed 9 on the meter and supplied the Imp kWh reading 
BGas are applying a meter read that is lower than my reading and I think might be the Imp R01 reading

Where do I go from here?  Is the BGas reading the right one?  

[Deleted User]

Check here to see if your meter is working in smart mode. 

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

The firmware update to Secure meters was deployed some time ago. Details of how to read your meter are as follows:

How to read a first generation (SMETS1) Octopus installed Secure™ Smart Meter

To take a manual meter reading on a standard electricity tariff:

• Press 6 on the keypad.
• You'll see the letters “IMP R01” appear on the screen.
• Wait a moment – then eight digits will appear, followed by “kWh” towards the bottom right of the screen.
• Take the first 7 digits – this is your reading.

There are no rules as to which of the 4 registers suppliers should use. They all record import usage - but at the same time. My meter is set up for R2 peak and R1 offpeak. Most suppliers will use RO1 for single rate tariffs.

alicef

Hi @Dolor

Thank you for your answer.  I did check on the citizen advice site and it states that the meter is smart.  I've always followed the info for taking readings as explained here...

https://www.britishgaslite.co.uk/assets/files/how-to-read-your-smart-meter.pdf under 'meters installed by other suppliers' for SMETS1 

is this information not correct anymore?

[Deleted User]

I may be wrong but I thought that BG installed Secure Liberty SMETS1 meters. Looking at your PDF, the first column (top left) seems to apply which matches the advice above.



If your meter is now ‘enrolled with and adopted by’ the DCC why are giving the supplier readings? Your bill meter readings should be annotated with a ‘S’.

alicef

Hi @[Deleted User]

Thank you for your reply.

I haven't been with BGas since the market was deregulated.  I was transferred to BGas because PfP went bust.  BGas put my meter into 'smart mode' August this year.  British Gas doesn't bill monthly so I don't have a bill with any meter readings that they have taken directly from the meter.  Their readings appear on the meter readings page of my account - when they appear I get in touch and say please remove the reading, though I've left the last one whilst my complaint trundles through.

I do however have their calculated consumption figures, which because their reading is lower than mine, is so huge I would be terrified of receiving a bill based on their reading.  

It is frustrating because I would like to move to variable DD and also move from British Gas.  I'm suspecting that somehow my meter registers haven't been mapped correctly - would this be possible?

[Deleted User]

There is no mapping involved, they are just meters that work as meters. If there is an error then it will sit within BG’s billing system. 

alicef

Hi @[Deleted User]

Thank you very much for all your help, I do appreciate it. 

Right I've gone pressed some more buttons on the meter.  

If I press the 9 I get the Imp kWh reading of 17137
If I press the 6 I get, after a load of stuff, R01 of 15263  and then after a bit R02 1874 which if I add them together gives the Imp kWh of 17137.

Now if I were on an economy 7 tariff, which I never have been, as my heating is oil, I would understand giving an R01 & R02 reading.  

So something isn't going right with how BGas is handling the meter readings.

[Deleted User]

If R01 is the only register that is going up as you use electricity, then it is usually the right one to be using for billing a single rate tariff.

alicef

Thanks @[Deleted User].  I'll check tomorrow.  I'm still confused as to why the method I have used in the past for supplying meter reads seems now to be incorrect. 

Well, I'll be happy for BGas to reset my readings to the lower figure they seem to want to use, and ask them to give me a refund. 

imeach

For a single rate meter on this model we are always told to press 9
OP, are you sure you weren't on economy 7 with 2 rates with your old supplier?

alicef

Hi @imeach

I've only ever pressed 9 to supply the IMP kWh figure.
With all previous suppliers, to the best of my recollection, I have only ever been on single rate tariff.  My previous supplier was PfP - the tariff was Green Variable s2.  Before that I'll have to dig back into my archived files to see who I was with and what the tariff was.  I have never been asked to supply day & night readings.