Scottish Power Smart Meter

[Deleted User]

What type of smart meter has your supplier fitted? The implication in the Gledhill email is that it needs to be a meter that is capable of load switching (ALCS). These meters are not fitted as standard. Once an ALCS meter is fitted then the supplier has to configure it to turn circuits on and off at the required times. This is something well outwith the knowledge of most CS staff and it best left to the supplier's metering team.

https://www.itron.com/na/solutions/product-catalog/smets2-electricity-em425uk2-5t

If a standard SMETS2 meter has been fitted then the supplier might well argue that switching control is a matter for the homeowner as wiring on the house side of the meter is not the supplier's responsibility.

Best of luck trying to SP to deal with this now that a meter has been fitted.

Bolt1234

Dolor - I wonder whethere you think I will have a battle on my hands?

What on earth is SP doing installing meters to complexes that are not standard and then expecting the reisdents most of which are late 80's and well into their 90's to manage the techincal details!  

This is Daily Telegraph type articles with SP as the predatory side.  Also we never agreed to a smart meter in the first place.  They say they sent me a text confirming the installation but refused to tell me who they sent it to.  Mum doesnt have a mobile and I certainly dont have a text from them!  I did agree when I was on holiday and they turned up unannounced they could do it but who ordered in the first place?  SP told me it was 'the account holder'.

I wish to god I had never allowed access.  Apparently the enginner turned up to fit three that day at the complex and none of us knew anything about it.  The other two residents turned them away.  Mum was in hospital hence the call to me

[Deleted User]

What on earth is SP doing installing meters to complexes that are not standard and then expecting the reisdents most of which are late 80's and well into their 90's to manage the techincal details! 

One of the challenges for meter installers is that they may not be familiar with the wiring in every home that they visit. In situations where special metering is required, it is worth raising this with the supplier before the installation visit - not least, because they need to ensure that they have the right type of meter on the van. I am not defending SP as the installer should have looked and walked away.

I return to my earlier post about photos. If you can find anyone who has the right type of meter fitted and you can compare it with your Mother’s meter then you have the basis for a complaint. The alternative is to get a qualified electrician to look at the wiring on the consumer side of the meter. In this regard, Gledhill’s report isn’t that helpful.

MattMattMattUK

As well as a picture of the meter, it would also be useful to know what tariff your mother is on with Scottish Power. If your mother is on E7 but without storage heaters her heating will be horrifically expensive in winter, however without being on E7 then the mention of off-peak usage makes no sense. 

QrizB

Pulsacoil is a sort of thermal store. The best explanation I've found is on a third-party site:

http://www.gasapplianceguide.co.uk/Gledhill Pulsacoil explained.htm

It relies on a timeswitch to provide power to the main immersion heater, with a second immersion fitted to allow a daytime boost.

This all seems consistent with the problems as reported.

Most (but not all) smart meters are capable of driving an ALCS. What we don't know is how the old meter was configured.

It's possible it was an E7 meter being used in single-rate mode, but with the ALCS still connected to a contactor that switched the main immersion. When SP replaced the meter, their system will have seen that the account was being charged at cingle rate and they might not have sent ALCS switching info to the meter.

Which means the meter installation might be perfect, with the ALCS connected to the contactor, but the back-end configuration needs changing? If so, SP's smart meter team don't have the best of reputations ...

(Please note all the ifs-and-maybes in this post, I'm speculating here!)

PennineAcute

Actually quite a tame response from Gledhill.  It is in their interests to sort out this matter.

MattMattMattUK

PennineAcute said:

Actually quite a tame response from Gledhill.  It is in their interests to sort out this matter.

I am not sure it matters to them in the slightest, they sold the products 4+ years ago, the products worked for that period, they appear to not work now potentially due to a programming issue with a controller that they did not sell, I cannot really see how it is in their interests to do anything about it.