The Journey (part 2) ... the plot thickens

So having had a surprising response from Ovo, I was open to suggestions of whom I might contact to get some, as Mick Jagger would say, satisfaction.


A helpful person on the MSE board (utility_csa) offered to put our meter serial number into his database at work to try and get the name of a company to speak to to get the meter read in detail.  I was a little sceptical but having few promising options meant I was getting desperate so I provided the serial number.  They came back to say that npower were the firm to speak to as they were the Meter Asset Provider and offered a contact number.  When I called them it turned out to be MeterPlus, the meter servicing arm of npower.


The automated call-direction system on the phone gave several warnings that the number was not for consumers, that general public should contact their own energy provider and that this line was only for utility companies.  Nevertheless I persevered and when the phone was answered explained very quickly that I had heard & understood the warnings ("public should not proceed any further, to do so will be dangerous" etc.) but that I had done so, as although I'm a consumer, I have a serious and unusual issue with my meter which was causing desperation and wanted some advice!


The helpful woman at the end of the phone relented (she was obviously well-trained to get rid of consumers usually) and agreed to listen.  I briefly explained the situation: that our meter was apparently fine until we had the Solar PV installed and the problem had since arisen that the incoming meter was programmed to add up and display imported and exported units and we had been charged for them.


I explained it was an unusual situation but a known issue with this meter and that although the data was all contained in the meter's internal memory and accessible by a technical engineer with the right meter reading hardware and software, our electricity supply company (and the previous one, E.ON) had maintained that estimation was the only way to remedy the historical over-charge and that they would then exchange the meter.


She laughed and was incredulous, unable to believe the stupidity that I'd been   faced with, not to mention the unhelpful response from the utility company and their insistence that I do all the chasing of wild-geese in this scenario.  She said that they could help but that they were unable to do it at my suggestion - it would have to be a request from Ovo - and once they'd been asked by the energy supplier to get involved they could do so and quite quickly and easily.  She recommended that I speak again to Ovo and insist that they request help from MeterPlus to interrogate our incoming meter for the relevant data.

I've also spoken to a very helpful person at Siemens who manufacture the meters in question.  She said they couldn't do it or help me to, but were very keen to advise the meter provider or utility company on how to get at the right bit of the meter memory to get the right info out! All I need to do is get someone to call them!

So now I'm confused ... but again utility_csa was able to advise:

• Ovo - current supplier
• E.ON - former supplier
• Utility Warehouse - supplier when meter was installed (buy their electricity from npower)
• npower - meter asset provider or meter operator as the person on the phone said?
• Meter Plus - npower metering arm
• Yorkshire Electricity - meter is "property of YE", part of npower?
• Lowri Beck - Ovo's metering partner

So it feels as though I'm getting somewhere, in the same way as someone trying to swim through syrup is getting somewhere!

More updates very soon ...