Smart meter glitch at switchover to Octopus Energy

DukeyBoy21

Hi all,
I have recently had my Shell Energy account moved over to Octopus and received a bill for the week between my shell billing and my switchover date which was ludicrously high (nearly 2000 kWh of gas in one week for a 2 bed house with two people in a mild week).

My smart meter digital display has a readout of the amount I have used for the whole of  February which is much lower than this week I have been charged for which obviously doesn't make sense (digital display said 400 kWh since the start of Feb).

I performed a creep test which suggested the meter was working fine so I am reluctant to get a proper meter assessment if the meter itself is working fine as I'll get charged.

Octopus energy has been less than useless and just keep asking what I use gas for and ignoring the logical inconsistency I have described above. 

Has anyone had this happen to them with a smart meter glitching at changeover?
If so, what did you do about it?
Can meters be updated remotely by the supplier?


Many thanks

EssexHebridean

Is the reading on the bill shown as an "actual", "Customer" or "Estimated" reading? 

How does the reading you  have taken compare to the reading on the bill?

Alnat1

Does the actual meter reading (not from the In Home Display) match what is shown on the bill or is it an estimate? Were any previous bills estimated and this was a catch up? Smart meters can occasionally fail to give readings to the energy company so check the meter and the bills.

DukeyBoy21

Alnat1 said:

Does the actual meter reading (not from the In Home Display) match what is shown on the bill or is it an estimate? Were any previous bills estimated and this was a catch up? Smart meters can occasionally fail to give readings to the energy company so check the meter and the bills.

The final shell reading and the first octopus reading were both actual readings from the smart meter (s/smart on both bills) Final Shell reading on 7th Feb 182, next reading on 15th Feb 359 equating to 1956 kWh of usage in a week. The digital display says about 450 kWh of gas usage in whole of Feb.
My smart meter data only goes back to 15th Feb on Octopus app so I'm assuming this was the switchover date.

The actual meter is reading the same as the higher reading. No bills were estimated since the smart meter was installed by Shell in November.

Thanks

QrizB

359 cubic metres of gas used since November doesn't sound unreasonable.

If your gas meter itself agrees with 359 as being the correct reading, it's more likely that the previous reading of 182 was too low.

What gas meter readings were given on your Shell bills from November to February?

Alnat1

Have you got Shell bills for Dec and Jan? If so, what were the readings and were they estimates or smart? Did you check them against the actual meter reading?

DukeyBoy21

Hi, I've checked through the bills since the smart meter was installed (actually back in October, I misremembered) and they have all been based on actual meter readings, no estimates. Here are the readings:
0 on 7/10/23
43 on 7/11/23
93 on 7/12/23
154 on 9/1/24
182 on 7/2/24
359.5 on 15/2/24

The daily usage data is only available from early morning on 15th Feb and I can't access the shell app anymore. I have someone from octopus looking in to where my usage data from 7th - 14th Feb is.

Thanks,
Jon

QrizB

Those numbers, taken at face value, show you using less gas in Jan-Feb (when it was cold and frosty in much of the UK) than you did in Oct-Nov (when it was unusually warm).

They don't look right, unless you were eg. away for two weeks in January.

Phones4Chris

How did you perform your creep test? Did you just turn off the incoming supply? If so, I would turn OFF all your gas appliances and check that the meter is not continuing to increment. If it does, start checking for a leak!
Otherwise, how far is the gas meter from the electric meter. Is it possible that it's not always communicating with the electric meter, but I'm not sure how that would affect the readings on the bills, if at all!