Octopus smart meter export data missing

Hi all,

In March my smart meter seemed to miss a few days here and there. This isn't too uncommon, and nearly always it's just a case of DMing them on TwitX, they chase the DCC, and it pops up within a few hours. This time, however, we've done three rounds of that, and while the export data is now all populated, I'm missing 3 days of export from my bill. It's around 38kWh / £5.70, so while not the end of the world, it's the principle of the thing.

I've asked them to advise how to resolve this, offering data from my system, at which point their usually swift and helpful team have gone unusually silent. Anyone had this before? How did you resolve it? Just keep badgering them?

Cheers,
Jo

I'm on Octopus Outgoing (15p/kWh fixed) and my bill just shows a "Smart meter reading" for the start and end of the period. Energy exported is the difference between the two. Any missing readings during the period wouldn't make any difference to the bill.

I have a similar experience Josephiah ie the majority of days the Octopus app shows import and export readings. Import is almost live whereas export appears after a day or so which is fine. However a few export days show 0.00 when there should be similar readings to the previous and following days.
How come import is never missed but export can be when it’s the same physical device?
Also Rubikcube if there are 0.00 values then how do we know that this hasn’t affected the total reading for the period on the bill without adding up each day?

SteveClubley Import is almost live whereas export appears after a day or so which is fine. However a few export days show 0.00 when there should be similar readings to the previous and following days.

My experience is the opposite. The Export reading invariably proceeds the import reading. The gap is usually a few hours. Recently there was a delay until I saw it the following day, ie Wednesday before the Monday readings.

I now enter the Grid import/export from MyEnergyOptimiser in the morning and tweak the readings in the evening. At the moment MEO does not estimate the prices.

Roy124

Hi. What do you mean by entering data? Into what?

SteveClubley Import is almost live whereas export appears after a day or so which is fine.

Do you have an octopus mini device? AFAIK octopus don't get meter readings until next day, but my mini sends imports directly to the website. (For some, it can also get exports, but mine doesn't.)

Recently, app has been showing 0 export on some days, rather than the usual "we're still getting hold of your data". But it corrects later next day

SteveClubley Into my own spreadsheet so I can record the daily import/export values for kW and £. This gives me a running total for my monthly bill. I have made assumptions for my daily consumption and estimated p/kW. After 4 days my actuals and about half my assumed consumption. The assumption is based on lower heat requirement and no significant Solar input.

[unknown]

Hi. I do have a mini device. I believe that it enables the live readings in the Octopus app ie positive value for import and negative value for export. The Octopus web site doesn’t display live data, at least not for me right now. The app and the website show historical data for both import and export but for some reason export is 0.00 for a few days when I know there was significant export taking place.

DD

Hi. I do have a mini device. I believe that it enables the live readings in the Octopus app ie positive value for import and negative value for export. The Octopus web site doesn’t display live data, at least not for me right now. The app and the website show historical data for both import and export but for some reason export is 0.00 for a few days when I know there was significant export taking place.

The Octopus mini will retrieve live import and export data, and that shows in the app, but Octopus systems don’t have a way of taking the export data in - it works entirely on the DCC meter reads.

But as Rubikcube says, if you are on the fixed 15p outgoing tariff the smart meter reads for outgoing are not used, they only use the start and end month total meter read.

Its only if you are on agile outgoing are the half hour smart meter reads used.

Which makes sense,15p fixed isn’t a smart tariff really

geoffreycoan @Rubikcube

OK. Thanks both for the advice.

Rubikcube Ah, that's an interesting distinction, will check that out, thanks.

Rubikcube geoffreycoan

Thanks both, on closer inspection this matches what I'm seeing. Bill amount matches my expected total from GE app and HA, it's just the day by day values in the Octopus app and OctopusWatch, which rely on the daily DCC meter reads, are missing a few days. So mildly annoying for a data geek, but no problem with the bill amount.
Much appreciated.

Josephiah Its not DCC at fault, its Octopus and their non-functional billing system (Kraken).

Happens to us several times a year and we ended up taking them to the ombudsman for repeated incorrect/nonsense billing and Octopus blamed DCC. We proved they were lying by showing the data we pull independently every day. Octopus went silent at this point.

Looks like we're going to be doing it again as nothing much has changed. They are bloody useless.

DD Do you have an octopus mini device? AFAIK octopus don't get meter readings until next day, but my mini sends imports directly to the website.

Interesting as they're specifically prohibited from using the mini for the purposes of metering.....

Vestas I don’t think there is any issue.

The mini data appears in the portal as live usage for the day, then the next day it gets overwritten by the actual meter readings when they arrive via the DCC.

I’ve seen this happen, when my mini was disconnected from the internet for a while there was minimal import readings in the portal that then jumped up when the DCC data arrived.

Just need Octopus billing systems distinguish between ‘draft Octopus mini readings’ and ‘authorised DCC meter reads’

Josephiah it's just the day by day values in the Octopus app ...are missing a few days. So mildly annoying for a data geek,

Which is why I use the data from MyEnergyOptimiser. So far I have not missed any Octopus readings but MEO gives me an earlier value, close enough for geeks, which I correct when I get the official values.

I am toying with the idea of feeding my daily export cash into my daily import charge to get an effective cost/kW hrs.

They managed to recover the missing data - don't what they did differently 4th time round...

Josephiah don't what they did differently 4th time round

Simple - they actually did what they should have done in the first place.

Octopus customer service continues to deteriorate & their own figures confirm this. They're no different from any other supplier now and in fact are considerably worse than some of the other major suppliers over the last 18-24 months.