Massive spike in electricity usage - Octopus Energy customer [Merged]

MWT

[Deleted User] said:

Estimates are meaningless in the context of accurate billing. It is far better to re-post your table with actual meter readings and dates. This would give us a better overview of your annual usage.

Agreed, just the actual meter readings and dates will be more helpful, the estimates add nothing useful.

Mstty

QrizB said:

Welcome to the forum.

Can you share a poto of your meter, please, with the current reading?

Nice to see you back my little one wants to share a picture of their poto but I fear I will be banned lol🤣🤣

reggie04

See data using only actual meter readings only. Fluctuations can mainly be explained by holidays and the weather (summer is higher than average as we used aircon units and we do use electric heaters in our office space and during cold snaps they are insanely expensive to run).

Also below are pictures of the meter. As you can see there is an error code rEd. The meter flashes between the reading and the error message. Octopus couldn't explain this (we don't have solar panels), and suggested it was a second-hand meter from a property that did have solar panels. This is not the case as far as we know. I'd never noticed the error message before the spike.

QrizB

rEd stands for Reverse Energy Detected and indicates that, at some time, the meter has measured electricity flowing "the wrong way". My old meter started displaying that when my solar panels were installed.

That meter is 22 years old which is pretty venerable for a basic electronic meter.

I agree with previous posters that, from a reasoned argument perspective, it's not credible that you used 38 kilowatts (160 amps!) continuously for 23 days without noticing it. It's more likely to be a metering glitch but I don't know if there's any way of proving that.

In your position, I'd appeal to Octopus to see the absurdity of the numbers and agree that it's erroneous. I'd also aim to get the meter replaced (but not before you've exhausted your discussions with Octopus).

I've used Octopus's complaints process before. It worked well for me.
https://octopus.energy/unhappy/

CSI_Yorkshire

Litigation prevents me going into details, but I am aware of a similar meter that had a similar glitch following disruption in the local grid.

TheElectricCow

Good advice from QrizB above.

The fact that the meter is displaying an error message, combined with its age, is a good indication that some kind of fault may have occurred, especially if this message has only appeared since the anomalous usage. 

This along with the sheer impracticality of the usage figures for such a short period  should be enough to put a case towards Octopus that the meter has at some point in time most likely not recorded your consumption correctly.

Ultimately you should pursue getting the meter replaced but ideally not before resolving the issue of the spike in readings, as this may complicate things if the old meter is removed and disposed of before the billing is rectified. If it’s agreed that there is a meter problem Octopus will probably want to replace it as part of the resolution anyway.

Make sure to get any important details of discussion with Octopus in writing and keep any relevant evidence e.g. any photos of the meter or past readings, should you need to rely on these later.

reggie04

Thank you, it's reassuring that the consensus is that the reading is erroneous. So far my dealings with Octopus have failed to get them to accept it's any more than an unusual spike caused by a faulty fuse and/or appliance. I naively thought they'd take one look at the reading and accept it as a fault or an event outside of our control. My case has been transferred to the complaints department.

Thanks again

Gerry1

Have Octopus downloaded all the historical information available via the optical port?

That might reveal some interesting things, e.g. that the jump in the reading was instantaneous and occurred when there were lightning strikes in the area.

reggie04

Gerry1 - no, at the moment Octopus hasn't really seriously engaged with the issue. I am hoping now it's with the complaints department they will take it more seriously. 

TheElectricCow

This is absolutely worth escalating until you can reach someone who’ll look at the matter with a bit more seriousness, bas level customer service people for energy suppliers can be a bit hit and miss in terms of helpfulness or ability to act.

You’d be pretty hard pressed to genuinely use 900kWh per day even as a high user, let alone sustain that over the best part of a month. If I turned on every single appliance I owned, ran the hot taps fully open, and blew all my heating outside for 24h I just might be able to push 350kWh ignoring any potential appliance safety cut outs.

Regardless, it’s a bit of a moot point if your house has a 100amp (or less) main fuse - you’re not going to be able to draw the amount of power in question here without blowing that.