Comms Problems with Aclara Smart Meters

Qyburn

Another email back from Octopus saying they're trying but may not be able to fill all the gaps. As others have found, the rep doesn't understand Tracker ..

"This shouldn't affect your billing though as you are on a tracker tariff this is billed using monthly meter readings and not the half hourly data used to populate the usage charts on the app."

If they're not caught up by tomorrow morning I'll submit the manual readings that I took this morning. 

Ildhund

mmmmikey said:

... As far as the missing data is concerned, 

In my case, there's no 'missing data' - OVO have happily retrieved everything as normal, although quite often later than usual since the third-party feed dried up. That means no problem with billing. It's a real first-world problem, which is of course why OVO won't do anything about it other than alert DCC on my behalf, which I think they have.

The fault mmmmikey and I have only - I think - affects the data we're used to getting from companies like n3rgy, Hugo and Loop. I would be surprised if there were any connection with PHoppers' missing data, especially since Octopus were eventually able to pull the figures from the meter. Still, it's not unthinkable that there's a general malaise about the DCC system which affects some customers more than others.

PHoppers

Hi mmmikey
I have an Aclara  meter. I have the apps, they are how I know data is missing, I use octopus compare and octopus watch apps. where data is missing, it just appear as blank days in both apps. Agile Ts&Cs are that you'll be charged at Flexible rates if they don't have the meter data. What I'm trying to get to the bottom of  is why it's suddenly started happening and quite badly, when prior to June I'd had no problems.

Ildhund

Qyburn Would you mind sharing a few details of your setup so I have another arrow in my quiver? These are the ones I've managed to assemble so far, and any additional evidence will help. I think the WNC hubs are all the same, but there are two flavours of EDMI hub: Standard 420 (single band) and Variant 450 (dual band). This may be irrelevant, of course.

	Me	User 2	User 3
Region	11 (East Midlands)	11 (East Midlands)	14 (West Midlands)
Supplier	OVO	OVO	Octopus
Meter	Aclara SGM 1416B	Aclara SGM 1411B	Aclara SGM 1411B
CH	WNC SKU1	WNC	WNC UBC-TN6
Last data packet	13/06/2024 03:00	19/06/2024 00:30	20/06/2024 08:30

Qyburn

Ildhund said:

Qyburn Would you mind sharing a few details of your setup so I have another arrow in my quiver? 

Sure. If I read the numbers correctly the meter is Aclara SGM1411-B and the hub is EDMI Standard 420. I'll attach a photo in case that adds anything. If you'd like serial numbers and/or MACs I can send these by PM.

Last data ..
Octopus export 30/07/2024 00:30
Octopus import 31/07/2024 00:30
Note Octopus have given up and billed on a (ridiculous) estimate

Bright 15/06/2024 01:30
N3rgy 16/06/2024 04:30

By the way I've just realised that Octopus' gaps which always start at 01:00 are actually whole days midnight to midnight GMT.

PHoppers

By the way I've just realised that Octopus' gaps which always start at 01:00 are actually whole days midnight to midnight GMT.

I found out that it's to do with clocks going forward in spring, so for 6 months the collection of the data is in sync 12:00-12:00 (winter) and for 6 months it's 1hr out of sync 01:00-01:00 (summer). It negatively affects billing TOD tariffs, because if you have any gaps in your data in summer, then it stretches 1hr into the next day and that whole day also becomes scrapped because it's incomplete.

I hope you get sorted anyway, my issues are different as said above somewhere

Ildhund

Qyburn said:

Sure. 

Thanks. Here's the current state of play. You forgot to give your region, but I don't think it matters ...

	Me	User 2	User 3	User 4
Region	11 (East Midlands)	11 (East Midlands)	14 (West Midlands)	17 (Northern Scotland)
Supplier	OVO	OVO	Octopus	Octopus
Meter	Aclara SGM 1416B	Aclara SGM 1411B	Aclara SGM 1411B	Aclara SGM 1411B
CH	WNC SKU1	WNC	WNC UBC-TN6	EDMI 420
Last data packet	13/06/2024 03:00	19/06/2024 00:30	20/06/2024 08:30	16/06/2024 04:30

Qyburn

Ildhund said:

Qyburn said:

Sure. 

Thanks. Here's the current state of play. You forgot to give your region, but I don't think it matters ...

Sorry, Northern Scotland (17? or P)

mmmmikey

It does all point towards an Aclara specific issue as per the original post. As a point of interest, are your IHD's working correctly and without interuption - might give some more clues about the issue?

Ildhund

Communication with the IHD is fine, so no HAN problem. Communication with the supplier is less solid than it was before this happened, but I've no way of knowing whether the two phenomena are related. Data used to arrive pretty regularly before about 10 AM, sometimes readings first, then usage, sometimes the other way around. Now I often have to wait until late evening, and on a couple of occasions until the following morning, before data arrive.

The only thing not working at all is third-party 'other users' retrieving data like they used to.