Scottish Power not repairing faulty smart meter.

oskarr

Just after a bit of advice please.  I moved into my new home in December, went through the usual process of getting meter readings and updating suppliers etc, noticed at the time I couldn't get anything on the display of the electric smart meter,  I spoke to Scottish Power and they said they had up to date readings which matched read from previous owner,  so didn't think anything more of it, just assumed I had not activated the display properly.

All energy bills have been fine since and no problem with that at all.

Fast forward to last week, I had a 3rd Party engineer out to survey property and electrics as I am having an EV charger installed (not via Scottish Power) The guy looked at the meter and also couldn't get it to display and suggested I contact supplier.

I have spoken to Scottish Power on 2 occasions as I don't think it is right that I cannot see a manual reading, they said readings are coming through their end fine and theydon't see a problem, so won't send anyone out to look at it, they advised me to use the app if I wanted to know meter readings.

Initially I accepted this, however on further investigation I think I have a SMETS1 meter, which I understand will not necessarily be "Smart" with other suppliers and I would have to give manual readings - Which I currently would not be able to do. I was thinking about switching to an EV tariff with another supplier, but in the event the meter becomes dumb by switching suppliers I don't think it fair to pass the buck to the new supplier to sort when Scottish Power are aware of the problem now.

I have emailed a complaint to Scottish Power and trying to get this escalated, but just wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar?

BarelySentientAI

oskarr said:

Initially I accepted this, however on further investigation I think I have a SMETS1 meter, which I understand will not necessarily be "Smart" with other suppliers and I would have to give manual readings - Which I currently would not be able to do.

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

This should tell you whether your meter has been adopted onto the general communications structure and will be smart with all suppliers or not. 

oskarr

BarelySentientAI said:

oskarr said:

Initially I accepted this, however on further investigation I think I have a SMETS1 meter, which I understand will not necessarily be "Smart" with other suppliers and I would have to give manual readings - Which I currently would not be able to do.

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

This should tell you whether your meter has been adopted onto the general communications structure and will be smart with all suppliers or not. 

Thanks for this, yes it is definately and older one. Is it reasonable to expect Scottish Power to repair this as effectively I am trapped with them if I use a different supplier and cannot read the meter.

BarelySentientAI

oskarr said:

BarelySentientAI said:

oskarr said:

Initially I accepted this, however on further investigation I think I have a SMETS1 meter, which I understand will not necessarily be "Smart" with other suppliers and I would have to give manual readings - Which I currently would not be able to do.

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

This should tell you whether your meter has been adopted onto the general communications structure and will be smart with all suppliers or not. 

Thanks for this, yes it is definately and older one. Is it reasonable to expect Scottish Power to repair this as effectively I am trapped with them if I use a different supplier and cannot read the meter.

So that site says that your meter is not yet on the new system?  You must be one of the last!  Most of the old meters have been moved over by now.

They will get around to repairing or more likely replacing your meter eventually, but the suppliers are all being pushed to spend their time fitting smart meters for customers who don't have one yet, and nobody seems very bothered about fixing ones that don't work right.  Particularly if they're getting your readings no problem.

Reed_Richards

My In-Home Device (IHD, the portable device heavily featured in TV adverts for smart meters) will tell me my meter reading.  Do you have one of those or did the previous owner not leave it behind?  If you cannot persuade Scottish Power to fix/replace your meter, why not ask for a replacement IHD as an alternative?