Any smart meter experts here?

Any smart meter experts here?

Author
Discussion

Raj28

Original Poster:

113 posts

131 months

Friday 24th March 2023
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Hi all,

We've been trying to get to the bottom of smart metering issue but not having much luck - hoping someone has come across this before.

Essentially the meters in our building were cross-metered (ie mixed up) so for example Flat 1 had a meter which electric co showed as Flat 5.

After epic faff, that all got sorted out so all the serial numbers now match the flat numbers BUT people kept getting strange reads from the electric co. Turns out these meters also have something called a GUID or Smart Meter ID which is still in the old mixed up state.

No-one seems to know who fixes it (including electric co), and changing electric provider as one resident has done doesn't seem to help. This seems to imply that the mixed up GUID/Smart Meter ID records are held in a national database.

Does anyone know how we can actually get this fixed? Electric co have been completely useless for months, with some people even going as far as the Ombudsman!

Thanks.

mrmistoffelees

281 posts

69 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Imagine that'd be DCC as they act as the broker between the customer and your energy company.

TimmyMallett

2,833 posts

112 months

Friday 24th March 2023
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My experience after only just finally having one working after it being replaced 7 times over 2 years is that SMS the company that fits them, have limited diagnostics and between them and your energy company could not find their arses with both hands. You need to raise a complaint with your energy company and get them to escalate to a 'technical' troubleshooting team which hopefully will result in them sending out one of theirs rather than the fit and leave installers.

Condi

17,188 posts

171 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
mrmistoffelees said:
Imagine that'd be DCC as they act as the broker between the customer and your energy company.
OP could try them, https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/contact-us/

But will probably have more success escalating with their energy supplier, as it's the energy supplier with the contacts and connection to the DCC. If you don't get anywhere with the normal call centre staff then find an email for the CEO as most energy companies have higher level complaints departments. Which energy company is it?

Nimby

4,589 posts

150 months

Friday 24th March 2023
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Raj28 said:
... No-one seems to know who fixes it (including electric co), and changing electric provider as one resident has done doesn't seem to help. This seems to imply that the mixed up GUID/Smart Meter ID records are held in a national database...
The meter database is maintained by your Network Operator, not the supplier who bills you.
Find yours via https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-n.... Try contacting them.

OutInTheShed

7,584 posts

26 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Nimby said:
The meter database is maintained by your Network Operator, not the supplier who bills you.
Find yours via https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-n.... Try contacting them.
When I had a slightly similar problem, I found that the keepers of the meter database, whoever they were, did not talk to the public, you have to go through your retailer.
Sorting my issue completely defeated the first two retailers I was with, but Octopus got it put right.

Nimby

4,589 posts

150 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
OutInTheShed said:
Nimby said:
The meter database is maintained by your Network Operator, not the supplier who bills you.
Find yours via https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-n.... Try contacting them.
When I had a slightly similar problem, I found that the keepers of the meter database, whoever they were, did not talk to the public, you have to go through your retailer...
Hmm. We're in Shropshire so our DNO is the confusingly-named National Grid (until very recently Western Power Distribution).
Their website has a Contact Us page with an 0800 number and online contact form. They were very quick to sort out a spelling error in our address on the meter database, which our supplier couldn't do.

Raj28

Original Poster:

113 posts

131 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
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Thanks to all for the useful replies and info. I will start digging away at this from Monday and update this thread once a path to resolution is reached. It seems like a not-so-rare issue but internet searches bring up very little indeed!

IJWS15

1,848 posts

85 months

Saturday 25th March 2023
quotequote all
You need to chase your energy supplier.

If some residents are seeing consumption data from other flats threaten them with Data Protection. I am in the industry (SMETS 2 Hubs) and meter reads are seen as personal data.

Raj28

Original Poster:

113 posts

131 months

Monday 24th July 2023
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Sorry for the thread resurrection - "could not find their arses with both hands" really was a good description.

So we followed up with the field manager at the energy provider (who helped get the cross metering sorted) and were told 2-3 weeks from them getting pics of every meter in the building labelled up they would get the GUIDs sorted as well. That was mid April. The company is E.On (not E.On Next)

The energy provider is now basically stonewalling. Can't get a reply from their developer squads, the field manager, just no-one. Emails are ignored. Tried raising a complaint, sent email to CEO etc but it doesn't seem to help. Can't raise a complaint at E.On as there is no process for it in this case apparently.

The CEO email got me a call from a lady who said she'd be dealing with it, but next I get an email from a "hi@eonnext.com" email address asking me for irrelevant info which they've already been supplied at E.On. Clearly its been thrown back to (the wrong) normal customer service who basically have no clue what they're doing and d**k about with it for a few weeks getting nowhere likely to tell me that it's actually an E.On issue which we all already know.

A resident who managed to take it all the way to the Ombudsman was told that the Ombudsman can't do anything as there's no statutory timeline to sort this type of issue out.

So in summary, the smart meter IDs are still messed up over 3 months in. E.On are stonewalling and can't escalate a complaint. E.On Next are useless. SmartDCC won't engage with us. Emails to the CEO/CSR people etc don't seem to actually help.

Any ideas from the PH collective?

Raj28

Original Poster:

113 posts

131 months

Monday 24th July 2023
quotequote all
The first thing we asked is for them to just install new meters (they won't install non smart meters anymore) so everything is automatically cleaned up, but the field manager said it would cost too much and the other way would only be 2-3 weeks!