Electricity smart meter not communicating

clarebear19

Hello
I'm in an ongoing dispute with Shell Energy about my electricity smart meter.  Both gas and electric smart meters were installed in July.  There was an issue with the IHD, which was replaced.  My issue since then is that the electric meter has stopped communicating with the network.  The gas meter does just fine but the electric did 2 months and then stopped.
A couple of questions

1. Shell said there was nothing they could do, I kicked up a fuss and said I at least wanted someone to check the meter. It took from september until mow to get them to agree to this and the engineer can't come out until March so that will be 7 months of issues. I also asked for compensation as it is a pain now to read the meter, its outside and in the winter waiting for the display to show the kwh is not ideal in this weather.  There are other reasons I wanted the smart meter as well, like monitoring my usgae to reduce my bill, getting solar panels and selling back to the grid, switching to a company on DFS etc. They have offered £50 but I think it should be more like £150-200, am I being  unreasonable? 
2. To help me argue my case, any ideas why it just stopped working, Shell say its a network issue but would that not have been from the start?  Why would the gas one work but not the electric?  We have replaced the meter cupboards/covers for both meters and they are metal covers but still not sure why only the electric is affected.  Could the covers be an issue and if so is there a cheap way to address it without replacing the covers?

Any advice welcomed
Thanks 

MattMattMattUK

clarebear19 said:

Hello
I'm in an ongoing dispute with Shell Energy about my electricity smart meter.  Both gas and electric smart meters were installed in July.  There was an issue with the IHD, which was replaced.  My issue since then is that the electric meter has stopped communicating with the network.  The gas meter does just fine but the electric did 2 months and then stopped.

Just so you are clear, there is not really anything Shell can do, they are really just the middle men for the DNO, who you cannot speak to. It could also be slightly complicated by Shell customers are being migrated to Octopus at the moment.

clarebear19 said:

1. Shell said there was nothing they could do, I kicked up a fuss and said I at least wanted someone to check the meter. It took from september until mow to get them to agree to this and the engineer can't come out until March so that will be 7 months of issues. I also asked for compensation as it is a pain now to read the meter, its outside and in the winter waiting for the display to show the kwh is not ideal in this weather.  There are other reasons I wanted the smart meter as well, like monitoring my usgae to reduce my bill, getting solar panels and selling back to the grid, switching to a company on DFS etc. They have offered £50 but I think it should be more like £150-200, am I being  unreasonable?  

Yes. You have s smart meter that is not communicating, which means you are in the same position as having a dumb meter, the other bits are an irrelevance. You could still change supplier, you could still get solar, you could still export.

clarebear19 said:

2. To help me argue my case, any ideas why it just stopped working, Shell say its a network issue but would that not have been from the start?  

Then it is likely a network issue, they happen and take time for the network operator to resolve, there is nothing your energy supplier can do about that. Faults can be intermittent, related to firmware updates or other reasons, no reason why a network issue could not occur after installation, most do.

clarebear19 said:
Why would the gas one work but not the electric?   

The comms hub is on the electricity meter, so it is unusual, but it can happen with a variety of network issues, not something the supplier can resolve unfortunately. 

clarebear19 said:
 We have replaced the meter cupboards/covers for both meters and they are metal covers but still not sure why only the electric is affected.  Could the covers be an issue and if so is there a cheap way to address it without replacing the covers? 

It could be an issue, metal does impeded RF, but as the comms hub is on the electricity meter and it is still getting data from the gas meter and that is getting processed it is unlikely.

clarebear19 said:

Any advice welcomed
Thanks 

Largely just wait it out. The engineer will visit, they may need to hard boot the meter (you cannot do that yourself), but it could also get resolved by the network operator before then. You are also in the middle of the Shell to Octopus migration, which might complicate things slightly, but will be finished in a month or two.

EssexHebridean

Personally I would be inclined to take the offered £50, then sit tight and wait to be migrated to Octopus - at which time revisit the demands for it to be sorted, you may well find they are far more helpful. In the meantime, the £50 is more than you would have been likely to earn from the DFS sessions in any event, so you’ll still be quids in.

liviboy

I had major issues with my smart meters and Shell including eventually having the same issue as you. A full asset replacement fixed it!

My thread is here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6333753/shell-energy-useless-when-it-comes-to-smart-meters/p1

I was given far more than £50 in compensation but went via Resolver and their customer service team in Croydon.