Octopus say they can’t read my SMETS2 meter

SuzeQStan

Switched from Shell Energy to Octopus as recently had solar panels installed and wanted to take advantage of their Outgoing tariff which pays 3x the rate that Shell do for grid export.

switch happened very quickly but now Octopus say they can’t read our SMETS2 meters which were installed 13 months ago by Shell Energy.

I’ve tried to find info about similar situations on the forum but must be searching wrong keywords as nothing has come up.

has anyone else had this kind of issue switching with existing SMETS2 meters to Octopus?  Octopus say it could take more than a month to sort the issue due to the Bulb migration.

InvertedVee

Hi, I moved from British Gas to Octopus at the end of January and I'm glad to export solar-generated electricity at 15p/kWh rather than BG's measly 4.1p/kWh.

But we hit snags when Octopus couldn't read the 2 year-old SMETS2 meters. In March they sent a technician who replaced both meters and the comms hub because the original installer hadn't recorded some installation codes.

After the installation I was eagerly looking forward to seeing my consumption data online, on the app and on my IHD. But there were issues:

1. The consumption recording by Octopus and the Bright Energy app has been patchy. It took a couple of weeks to settle down but I still have missing data.
2. During the changeover, Octopus' records of the export register wasn't reset to 0000, so when I manually submitted the next export meter reading of 0004, I got a bill for a negative export of 1500kWh of solar electricity at 15p/kWh = £206. Octopus reversed this when I reported it.
3. I'm now being billed at the correct rates but when I download consumption data, the import CSV file shows exported energy and the export CSV shows imported energy. It's probably just a mislabelling but I want them to fix it now in case it leads to further mix-ups.

I'm surprised that it's been far from straightforward. There are so many steps in the procedures and in my experience, errors are made along the way. If my experience is typical, it must be needlessly costing a fortune in admin, customer support and new hardware.

I continue to take and submit manual readings each week and to check every aspect of the billing carefully.

SuzeQStan

This is very interesting (and bit disheartening!) to read. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply @InvertedVee

May I ask - did you have to regularly chase Octopus to get to the point where their engineer came out for the new SMETS2 meters? Did they make an initial trip to see what was required and then come back to replace later date or was it all done at once?

I may have reputation of glass half empty type of person but that side of me wonders if energy companies installing SMETS2 meters have intentionally set them
up to turn ‘dumb’ in the event of a switch. 

InvertedVee

SuzeQStan said:

This is very interesting (and bit disheartening!) to read. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply @InvertedVee

May I ask - did you have to regularly chase Octopus to get to the point where their engineer came out for the new SMETS2 meters? Did they make an initial trip to see what was required and then come back to replace later date or was it all done at once?

I may have reputation of glass half empty type of person but that side of me wonders if energy companies installing SMETS2 meters have intentionally set them
up to turn ‘dumb’ in the event of a switch. 

I didn't have to chase Octopus, they got onto the problem of the 'old' SMETS2 meters straight away and the technician came to replace them within 3 weeks. I can't complain about that.

The technician came to replace the gas meter and to updated the electricity and comms hub settings. When he arrived he said that the electricity meter and comms hub would also need replacing. He phoned his office to get authorisation. At the time of his first visit, there was an issue with DCC's systems so he couldn't enrol the meters until a second visit on the next day.

I don't think there's any intention to make the systems less effective than they should be and I'm very much in favour of smart meters and the improvements that they should deliver for the retail energy industry and we customers. Getting them working just seems to be a complex procedure that's prone to human error.

Hang in there. You're with the best retail energy company in my opinion. Keep politely reminding them every 7-10 days and they'll get there in the end.

[Deleted User]

SuzeQStan said:

This is very interesting (and bit disheartening!) to read. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply @InvertedVee

May I ask - did you have to regularly chase Octopus to get to the point where their engineer came out for the new SMETS2 meters? Did they make an initial trip to see what was required and then come back to replace later date or was it all done at once?

I may have reputation of glass half empty type of person but that side of me wonders if energy companies installing SMETS2 meters have intentionally set them
up to turn ‘dumb’ in the event of a switch. 

It is extremely unlikely that there is a fault with your smart meters. The most likely problem is that the comms hub has lost contract with the DCC network. The DCC, not the supplier, is responsible for all comms hubs.

One particular make/model of comms hub is suffering from issues that the DCC is struggling to resolve. The supplier can make a request to the DCC for a remote comms hub reset. The DCC will then instruct the comms hub to power down for 15 minutes. If this doesn’t work, then Octopus should send out an engineer to pull your main house fuse for 15 minutes. If this fails, then there is an issue with the comms hub which will need to be replaced.

The process of replacing a comms hub is administratively complicated so I guess someone in the supplier/installer chain has decided it is easier to replace everything even if the two meters are working.

If you want to contact Octopus’ smart team directly then email smart.help@octopus.energy

PS Suppliers are not making your meters dumb on a switch. This is not possible,

SuzeQStan

Thanks @[Deleted User] - I will contact the smart team.  

The thing that is odd to me is that Shell were taking 1/2 hourly reads from our leccy meter with no issue right up until the date of the switch to Octopus.

interesting what you say about the comms hub - hope that reset would do the trick but I believe this has already been attempted so even more hoping the Bulb migration won’t delay the engineer too much.

thanks for the good info much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

Take a look at the comms hub. Which LEDs are flashing and what is the time period between flashes?

Before a supplier can pull data it has to send out a bespoke security certificate to each meter. This is part of the built in GCHQ-level layered security. It works a bit like an Amazon parcel delivery. If a man knocks on your door and offers you are parcel that you are not expecting, most people would reject it. The meters will reject any instructions that they are not set up to expect.

FWiW, the Octopus smart team are pretty switched onbut, sadly, nothing happens quickly when other parties are involved. As I said, the DCC looks comms hubs and the network, and meter/device manufacturers are responsible for their meters and all firmware updates. 

InvertedVee

Hi @SuzeQStan, how are you getting on?

I thought I'd update you on my situation: Octopus are still struggling to obtain any readings from my new gas meter. The Bright Energy app records data from it half of the time. Octopus are referring it to their tech team for more investigation.

SuzeQStan

Morning @InvertedVee - sorry to hear re the gas meter gremlins! Did you have any issue with gas meter readings when you were with BG?  

I’m not sure why your original Octopus technician would not have made sure your new smart gas meter was working prior to leaving!?!

I’ve been chasing Octopus (smart team) once a week and have received a single reply for my effort which didn’t include advisement of a date they would send their engineer out.

It’s a bit gutting as we would have gotten approximately £15 even with their Outgoing tariff this month. 

Hope you get sorted soon - pls let us know how you get on & I’ll do the same 😊👍🏻

[Deleted User]

InvertedVee said:

Hi @SuzeQStan, how are you getting on?

I thought I'd update you on my situation: Octopus are still struggling to obtain any readings from my new gas meter. The Bright Energy app records data from it half of the time. Octopus are referring it to their tech team for more investigation.

It sounds like a distance/interference issue between the gas meter and your comms hub which will need to be resolved with a replacement dual-band comms hub and dual-band gas meter.

SuzeQStan

But they just replaced the gas meter & hub - surely that will be the 3rd meter / comms hub for @InvertedVee in 2 years!!