Are we charged for smart meter maintenance?

chba123

Good afternoon

I have had the smart meter for just over one month.

Unfortunately I have been quite ill. On discharge from hospital, I noticed I am being charged between 31 and 35p each night for gas. My gas hasn’t been used at all but the charges are there every morning.

I emailed OVO to ask  what the cost is, I received this reply

Hi C, Thanks for getting in touch with us. My name is W…... I'm a account management team member here at OVO, and I'm happy to help you with this.

The 30p charge is standing charge. I have added a explanation of standing charge below.

I thought that was odd, as I remember reading the standing charge is added.

I went to my daughters for five days after discharge. I arrived home this week and queried again the monies taken overnight because it was bothering me. It’s only 30 odd pence but it mounts up over the year.

I received another response stating:

With regard to billing, unfortunately, standing charge is not included with your consumption. We bill you for your month's worth of consumption, add the charge and VAT

This amount is not billing you on the amount of units you use in a month. This means, even though you are not using gas, you will still be billed 31p a day. We will continue to bill you standing charge as long as OVO Energy is your supplier. The reason we require this is due to us servicing your meter. For example, if your meter breaks or is faulty, we will complete a free meter exchange.

 

Does this mean we are being charged nearly £115 a year to service the smart meter???

molerat

It is not a smart meter maintenance charge, it is the daily standing charge for having gas installed at the property.  It is levied whatever type of meter you have.  The charge is for maintaining the network.

chba123

Thanks for your reply. I'm still confused by their response though
Ovo stated that the standing charge is added at the end of the month. It appears this 30 odd pence is being added each day to my consumption bill.

standing charge is not included with your consumption. We bill you for your month's worth of consumption, add the charge and VAT

I have emailed them to clarify, I'm obviously missing something  :-:smiley:

molerat

I assume you are looking at your IHD, the little toy screen in your house. That is purely an indicator of your use and costs, it shows the daily charge added to your use each day but it is not your bill.  The bill will be issued each month with the correct costs for daily charge and gas consumption.

Spoonie_Turtle

chba123 said:

standing charge is not included with your consumption. 

Because your consumption is billed by the kWh rate.

So your overall actual bill will be units (used x p/kWh) + (days x standing charge) + VAT 

It sounds like you are looking at your IHD which is nothing to do with your bill, it's just to give you an idea of how much you are using and spending - and they're not always accurate in terms of money, they're only really reliable for how much energy you're actually using.  It has its uses but billing isn't one of them.

CSI_Yorkshire

Your bill is the price of the energy you use, plus your part of the fixed cost of having a gas and electricity network.

This has been the same for decades.

DullGreyGuy

Look at one of your old bills from before the smart meter... it too will have the same standing charge. Think of it like the line rental you used to have to pay on your landline. It's the baseline charge for having a gas connection whereas the other component of the bill is for the gas (or electricity) you actually use.