Changes to smart meter settings

mickyb57

Hi
I have a smart meter for our electricity (there is no gas where I live), the current supplier is EDF and I check my readings on a weekly basis. As we have an electric car I have been on an EV tariff to take advantage of a cheaper rate at night. When I did a reading on Friday I noticed that the night rate reading had not increased by as much as I was expecting and it has not changed in the last 4 days. There is no way of getting a response from EDF over a weekend or Bank Holiday so I spoke to them today and they confirmed that the meter settings have been altered by someone, but could not explain why. It also means that I will be overcharged for the electricity consumed during the normal hours at the reduced rate. They have assured me that this will be corrected today, but I won't know if this has been done until tomorrow morning when I check the reading. Has anyone else experienced this and is there no way of setting up some sort of notification to the end user if changes have been made remotely?

MattMattMattUK

mickyb57 said:

Hi
I have a smart meter for our electricity (there is no gas where I live), the current supplier is EDF and I check my readings on a weekly basis. As we have an electric car I have been on an EV tariff to take advantage of a cheaper rate at night. When I did a reading on Friday I noticed that the night rate reading had not increased by as much as I was expecting and it has not changed in the last 4 days. There is no way of getting a response from EDF over a weekend or Bank Holiday so I spoke to them today and they confirmed that the meter settings have been altered by someone, but could not explain why. It also means that I will be overcharged for the electricity consumed during the normal hours at the reduced rate. They have assured me that this will be corrected today, but I won't know if this has been done until tomorrow morning when I check the reading.

It can happen, it is not "someone" but usually something internal at the energy supplier's billing system. The meter will still be recording the half hourly reads, it is just the way they are allocated to the registers, or within the billing system. You can download that data from EDF if you want to.

mickyb57 said:

Has anyone else experienced this and is there no way of setting up some sort of notification to the end user if changes have been made remotely?

Other people have, but that is irrelevant. There is no way of setting up a notification, but again, just keep an eye on your billing, as everyone should do, and you will be fine. 

Keep_pedalling

I think EDF now used the 30min readings for their EV tariffs rather than separate registers. They may not have done that previously hence the change.

Do EDF give you access to your half hour usage like Octopus do?

mickyb57

I'm not aware that EDF do give access to the usage, but I'm pretty sure that I agreed to the 30min readings some while ago. In response to the first reply, the point is that because the meter settings have been altered the meter is now effectively recording on a single rate as the night rate reading never changes. It's pretty material at this time of year when the nightly consumption is over 50% of the daily consumption at over 10p more per KwH

Keep_pedalling

mickyb57 said:

I'm not aware that EDF do give access to the usage, but I'm pretty sure that I agreed to the 30min readings some while ago. In response to the first reply, the point is that because the meter settings have been altered the meter is now effectively recording on a single rate as the night rate reading never changes. It's pretty material at this time of year when the nightly consumption is over 50% of the daily consumption at over 10p more per KwH

So what do your bills show? If you are on 30min readings it should not matter that that you only have one registry. 

Also if you go to you account on line you should be able to see a chart showing your usage in 30min intervals.

MattMattMattUK

mickyb57 said:

I'm not aware that EDF do give access to the usage, but I'm pretty sure that I agreed to the 30min readings some while ago. 

You can download the data in CSV format, not exactly sure where from since they changed their systems, but other users with EDF have reported being able to do so.

mickyb57 said:

In response to the first reply, the point is that because the meter settings have been altered the meter is now effectively recording on a single rate as the night rate reading never changes. It's pretty material at this time of year when the nightly consumption is over 50% of the daily consumption at over 10p more per KwH

As KP says, the change from two to one registers is largely irrelevant as they have moved to using the thirty minute billing data instead.