Smart Meter Not Sending Data to DCC (2+ weeks now)

Phones4Chris

I suspect, based on my experience, that if you phone in to start, then the account can be assigned to a particular agent (and/or maybe team).
Replies to my emails have always been the same agent (but issue dependant sometimes a 2nd one) usually a working day later but less frequently the same day.

Gerry1

Phones4Chris said:

I suspect, based on my experience, that if you phone in to start, then the account can be assigned to a particular agent (and/or maybe team).
Replies to my emails have always been the same agent (but issue dependant sometimes a 2nd one) usually a working day later but less frequently the same day.

"We do customer service a little differently here – every energy specialist is put in a small team of ~10 people who can help customers with their problems end-to-end. Each team looks after a small group of customers, so every team is like its own mini-business, and customers get to speak to the same team each time they get in touch."

https://octopus.energy/blog/sotiris-energy-recruitment-specialist/

Phones4Chris

I had read that a long time ago thank you @Gerry1, but I think you are missing the point. It would seem, judging by a number of responses on this board, one has to wonder if that's actually happening for a lot of people!
Oh, and just to add I got a different agent the 2nd time I phoned, the first time the agent clearly didn't know what they were taking about, so I said "Forget it, I'll phone again when I've got more time".
And, there's nothing to suggest that customers are "pre-assigned a team" before the first time they get in touch.

Qyburn

One (other) problem with that arrangement is you never get to speak to a specialist, instead that first line team tries to pass information backwards and forwards. Or tries to help even when out of their depth like the guy suggesting our meter fault made be due to poor 4G signal. Or the lady giving me detailed but contradictory information about setting up export, who eventually qualified that she was "just going by what I've heard".

Reed_Richards

Nothing to do with Octopus but my 10 days of lost data was never recovered.

MeteredOut

Reed_Richards said:

Nothing to do with Octopus but my 10 days of lost data was never recovered.

I got lucky then. After data started flowing again, i contacted Octopus via Twitter and they requested the back data from 30/12/24 to be pulled through. It's there now. I asked Bright to do the same and its there now too. 

Still nothing on n3rgy.com, Hugo or Loop since that date though.

Somebody

I've had no data from my gas meter since 00:00 22nd January.  I sent a query to both Loop and Octopus via the apps today and here's what I got back from Loop:

.

No response from Octopus yet

MeteredOut

So the same issue happened again at the end of last month (smart meter seemingly working, all lights flashing as expected, IHD getting readings, Octopus Mini getting readings, but no data reaching Octopus). Perhaps coincidentally, it was almost exactly one month after it stopped working in January. 

I gave it to the middle of last week to contact Octopus, via X. Each time they respond as say "give it 24-48 hours" but still no fix. My experience with what used to be good Octopus customer service is further diminishing.

Weirdly, even though the data did start flowing to Octopus and Bright when Octopus fixed the issue last month, it never did start flowing to n3rgy.com (or Hugo or Loop). 

When I raised this with Hugo (who use N3RGY), they said 

"1. If your supplier recently undertook any work remotely/physically to your meter, that could have effectively pointed the data towards themselves under their protocol, but they still need to complete access via the open Smart DCC protocol. This is how we can access your data .This also means if you move suppliers, your data could be affected. Please get in touch with your supplier, explain this issue, and ask if the firmware and DCC open network protocol for your meter is in place. You can contact the Smart DCC via their HOMEPAGE if they refuse to engage with you meaningfully."

Does anyone have any more details on what this is referring to?

Phones4Chris

MeteredOut said:

............
When I raised this with Hugo (who use N3RGY), they said 

"1. If your supplier recently undertook any work remotely/physically to your meter, that could have effectively pointed the data towards themselves under their protocol, but they still need to complete access via the open Smart DCC protocol. This is how we can access your data .This also means if you move suppliers, your data could be affected. Please get in touch with your supplier, explain this issue, and ask if the firmware and DCC open network protocol for your meter is in place. You can contact the Smart DCC via their HOMEPAGE if they refuse to engage with you meaningfully."

Does anyone have any more details on what this is referring to?

1) Sounds like they didn't want to bother looking into i!
2) Energy providers are the only ones entitled to the "Full" data from your meter. Other "3rd parties" such as N3rgy, Bright (Hildebrand) etc, have to use the Protocol mentioned (in accordance with OFGEM rules). Hugo and Loop use N3rgy, so if N3rgy aren't getting it, then Hugo and Loop won't.
3) Your supplier won't have had any specific custom firmware for your meter, that is solely down to the meter manufacturer - but it is possible that such an update (if there was one) might be buggy and causing a problem.
There may be other settings on the meter that a supplier could change that may affect all this but somehow I doubt it, it would be a major "weakness" in security if that could happen but I really don't know enough about the detail, there's a myriad of highly technical documents that define all these things.
4) The fact that your supplier (Octopus) isn't getting the data either, suggest that the issue might be at the DCC but it could be the meter or comms unit, I think the latter two unlikely especially as this is a "repeat" incident.
5) Your best bet it to chase Octopus IMHO, just complain that you can't see your usage data in your "Account" (or the App presumably).

What make/model is your meter?

MeteredOut

Phones4Chris said:

MeteredOut said:

............
When I raised this with Hugo (who use N3RGY), they said 

"1. If your supplier recently undertook any work remotely/physically to your meter, that could have effectively pointed the data towards themselves under their protocol, but they still need to complete access via the open Smart DCC protocol. This is how we can access your data .This also means if you move suppliers, your data could be affected. Please get in touch with your supplier, explain this issue, and ask if the firmware and DCC open network protocol for your meter is in place. You can contact the Smart DCC via their HOMEPAGE if they refuse to engage with you meaningfully."

Does anyone have any more details on what this is referring to?

1) Sounds like they didn't want to bother looking into i!
2) Energy providers are the only ones entitled to the "Full" data from your meter. Other "3rd parties" such as N3rgy, Bright (Hildebrand) etc, have to use the Protocol mentioned (in accordance with OFGEM rules). Hugo and Loop use N3rgy, so if N3rgy aren't getting it, then Hugo and Loop won't.
3) Your supplier won't have had any specific custom firmware for your meter, that is solely down to the meter manufacturer - but it is possible that such an update (if there was one) might be buggy and causing a problem.
There may be other settings on the meter that a supplier could change that may affect all this but somehow I doubt it, it would be a major "weakness" in security if that could happen but I really don't know enough about the detail, there's a myriad of highly technical documents that define all these things.
4) The fact that your supplier (Octopus) isn't getting the data either, suggest that the issue might be at the DCC but it could be the meter or comms unit, I think the latter two unlikely especially as this is a "repeat" incident.
5) Your best bet it to chase Octopus IMHO, just complain that you can't see your usage data in your "Account" (or the App presumably).

What make/model is your meter?

Thanks, Yes, it was weird that Octopus/Bright/N3RGY/Hugo/Loop were all getting the data until the end of Dec 2024, and then stopped, but when one of them fixed in January (I contacted them all, but I suspect Octopus) only Octopus and Bright started receiving usage again - the others continued to receive nothing. 

Octopus is who i'm chasing this time - exactly as you've said - no usage data (other than short term Octopus Mini data) on my account and App. But all I get is "we'll request the data for you" with no timescales given.

Meter is Kafai MA120. Don't think its an issue here as HAN/WAN lights on comms unit are both flashing as expected and meters are correctly tracking usage (and sending to Octopus Mini & IHD).

(Slightly added complication is that my gas is with EDF - can't move away yet for reasons well documented elsewhere - when I contacted them when the issue first arose, they were adamant they could not help and only Octopus could. I don't normally trust a word they say, but I suspect they are right in this case. The record of my gas usage has come and gone on EDF in parallel to the electricity on Octopus).