Octopus Go - billed for double my usage!

petelancaster1988

I have been on Octopus Go since October last year and for whatever reason my meter (Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1) has seemingly been sending two readings every half-hour ever since switching, resulting in me being billed for basically double my actual usage. At present, by my calculations they will owe me around £500...

I have been in contact with Octopus, who have said that it is an industry-wide issue and that they are waiting for the powers that be to provide a software update which will correct the problem. All the while continuing to insist that they take a direct debit from me every month.

I have requested a SMETS2 meter to be installed, as I assume the problem is within my meter somewhere, but Octopus have said that this would not be guaranteed to resolve the problem, and are generally resisting fitting a new meter.

Does anyone else have a similar issue to this, and can anyone provide any advice on where I stand with Octopus please?

pochase

It would not really matter if your meter sends 10 readings every 30 minutes. Of importantce is only what the reading is, and that will be almost the same 2 minutes later.

Do you mean that it sends readings for different registers? Like E7 readigns for peak and off peak usage?

Again this will only be of importance if you used energy on the register.

Can you go into a bit more detail what really happened and why you believe that you are billed double what you are using?

CSI_Yorkshire

I'm assuming that it's not the it's sending multiple readings of the same register value, because that wouldn't cost anything extra.

I'm assuming that this is the 30-min usage XML file that gets used for tariffs like Agile (although I didn't know it was used for Go).  It would still seem odd that the system gets given two readings for the same timestamp and charges for them both.

petelancaster1988

As far as I am aware my meter does not send different readings for different registers. I believe it just sends one reading every half an hour, which Octopus then applies as night rate for readings between 00:30 and 04:30, and the day rate for everything else. I only have one import meter reading, not two.

If I take for example my EV charger, which is programmed to charge during the 4 hour night rate window, and which charges at somewhere around 7.5kW. During the night I can see that my energy usage is being logged in the Octopus app as 7.5kWh per half-hour (i.e. as if it were charging at 15kW). My readings should therefore be around 3.75kWh per half hour (perhaps slightly more for background house electricity use). The same goes for my house batteries if they are on a manual night charge.

I've also done the sums from the usage stated on the bills I have received to date, compared with a manual meter reading. Since October I have used around 4,000kWh according to taking a manual reading and subtracting my start reading (also a manual read taken back in October when I joined Go). My bills to date have been calculated on around 8,000kWh, thus proving incorrect readings either being sent by my meter, or an incorrect interpretation at Octopus's end.

Perhaps it is not two readings being sent. Maybe the meter is sending a hours' reading every half-hour? Or Octopus's system is recording each reading twice, I'm not sure. What I do know is that my usage is being reported as almost exactly double by Octopus.

[Deleted User]

I have been in contact with Octopus, who have said that it is an industry-wide issue and that they are waiting for the powers that be to provide a software update which will correct the problem. All the while continuing to insist that they take a direct debit from me every month.

Octopus is correct in saying that there was a problem with some SMETS1 meters adopted by the DCC - but I thought that this had been resolved. That said, there is little that the supplier can do. The DCC is responsible for comms hubs and the network, and meter/device manufacturers update their firmware.

If it was me, I would email smart.help@octopus.energy and ask them to switch my meter to dual register whilst they wait for a resolution.

CSI_Yorkshire

petelancaster1988 said:

If I take for example my EV charger, which is programmed to charge during the 4 hour night rate window, and which charges at somewhere around 7.5kWh. During the night I can see that my energy usage is being logged in the Octopus app as 7.5kW per half-hour (i.e. as if it were charging at 15kWh). My readings should therefore be around 3.75kW per half hour (perhaps slightly more for background house electricity use). The same goes for my house batteries if they are on a manual night charge.

I'm sure you realise that you got the units backwards there, but for others' benefit:

The charger charges at somewhere around 7.5kW.

This means 3.75kWh in each half-hour slot.

petelancaster1988

CSI_Yorkshire said:

petelancaster1988 said:

If I take for example my EV charger, which is programmed to charge during the 4 hour night rate window, and which charges at somewhere around 7.5kWh. During the night I can see that my energy usage is being logged in the Octopus app as 7.5kW per half-hour (i.e. as if it were charging at 15kWh). My readings should therefore be around 3.75kW per half hour (perhaps slightly more for background house electricity use). The same goes for my house batteries if they are on a manual night charge.

I'm sure you realise that you got the units backwards there, but for others' benefit:

The charger charges at somewhere around 7.5kW.

This means 3.75kWh in each half-hour slot.

Doh! Yes, thank you!! I've corrected my post to avoid any confusion.

petelancaster1988

[Deleted User] said:

I have been in contact with Octopus, who have said that it is an industry-wide issue and that they are waiting for the powers that be to provide a software update which will correct the problem. All the while continuing to insist that they take a direct debit from me every month.

Octopus is correct in saying that there was a problem with some SMETS1 meters adopted by the DCC - but I thought that this had been resolved. That said, there is little that the supplier can do. The DCC is responsible for comms hubs and the network, and meter/device manufacturers update their firmware.

If it was me, I would email smart.help@octopus.energy and ask them to switch my meter to dual register whilst they wait for a resolution.

Thanks for the advice, that is exactly what I have now done.

I'll keep everyone updated as to the response I receive.

wild666

petelancaster1988 said:

I have been on Octopus Go since October last year and for whatever reason my meter (Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1) has seemingly been sending two readings every half-hour ever since switching, resulting in me being billed for basically double my actual usage. At present, by my calculations they will owe me around £500...

I have been in contact with Octopus, who have said that it is an industry-wide issue and that they are waiting for the powers that be to provide a software update which will correct the problem. All the while continuing to insist that they take a direct debit from me every month.

I have requested a SMETS2 meter to be installed, as I assume the problem is within my meter somewhere, but Octopus have said that this would not be guaranteed to resolve the problem, and are generally resisting fitting a new meter.

Does anyone else have a similar issue to this, and can anyone provide any advice on where I stand with Octopus please?

Were you by any chance a previous customer of British Gas and had their free electric tariff? I was and my meter used to give two readings, one for the weekly usage minus the 8 hour free time period and one for the free time period. This really screwed things up when I left BG as my monthly usage was about 20 kWh under the total usage meaning that when I finally found out about the second reading I owed my supplier £20 from the free time usage.

[Deleted User]

Were you by any chance a previous customer of British Gas and had their free electric tariff? I was and my meter used to give two readings, one for the weekly usage minus the 8 hour free time period and one for the free time period. This really screwed things up when I left BG as my monthly usage was about 20 kWh under the total usage meaning that when I finally found out about the second reading I owed my supplier £20 from the free time usage.

There was a problem with Secure SMETS1 meters which on adoption by the DCC were providing the supplier - via its Adapter software - with an XML file which had doubled the 30 minute usage. It was a problem that the DCC set up a working group to fix.

Edit: I found this on another forum from 2 years ago.

‘ Ok, just had a call from BEIS on this (very clever chap called Peter). It seems that SMETS1 meters record half hourly data as kW per half hour (not per hour) and therefore pre-DCC migration the SMETS1 SMSO was re-calculating this. It sounds like post DCC migration this recalculation step was lost and hence the issue you’re seeing.’

The issue was impacting many SMETS1 meters built by different manufacturers. As Octopus is the only supplier that uses 30 minute data for billing, their t-o-u tariff customers were the ones most affected.

‘SMSO:

Smart meters need a smart back-end system, which is why Secure has developed the Smart Metering Operator Services (SMSO) system. This system controls all aspects of meter operation, and is the interface between your business systems and your meters, using industry-standard web-service APIs.

We also realise that the day-to-day management of smart meters should not be a burden on your business, so we offer a wide range of services to help you get started in smart metering. These range from a full, web-based, smart metering management system through to consultancy services to help you integrate your business system with our SMSO system. For us, partnerships come first and this is about working together.’

On meter adoption, I believe that the DCC takes over this function.

petelancaster1988

wild666 said:

petelancaster1988 said:

I have been on Octopus Go since October last year and for whatever reason my meter (Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1) has seemingly been sending two readings every half-hour ever since switching, resulting in me being billed for basically double my actual usage. At present, by my calculations they will owe me around £500...

I have been in contact with Octopus, who have said that it is an industry-wide issue and that they are waiting for the powers that be to provide a software update which will correct the problem. All the while continuing to insist that they take a direct debit from me every month.

I have requested a SMETS2 meter to be installed, as I assume the problem is within my meter somewhere, but Octopus have said that this would not be guaranteed to resolve the problem, and are generally resisting fitting a new meter.

Does anyone else have a similar issue to this, and can anyone provide any advice on where I stand with Octopus please?

Were you by any chance a previous customer of British Gas and had their free electric tariff? I was and my meter used to give two readings, one for the weekly usage minus the 8 hour free time period and one for the free time period. This really screwed things up when I left BG as my monthly usage was about 20 kWh under the total usage meaning that when I finally found out about the second reading I owed my supplier £20 from the free time usage.

Nope, this is the first "non-standard" tariff I've ever been on. Prior to this I was on standard variables and fixed tariffs further back.