I know there are some others on here with Ovo. Ive just received my “Annual Electric Summary” and there’s some figures that dont make any sense.

My annual consumption is 5,100 kWh. After you strip out Immersion water heating for the period between the biomass boiler being on and the solar thermal doing it’s thing, we consume about 4100kWh pa in electricity. That’s not too bad for a family of four and I work from home so the office is running all day long, and bread-baking must consume c.400kWh a year! But I’d like to think we can do better.

Anyway, we’re on the 2yr fixed tariff 11.39p/kWh (27.04p per day SC) so our annual cost is around £700 pa (£100 of which is DHW). That’s all correct.

However the Ovo summary then goes on to “forecast” next year and assumes that our consumption goes up to 5,800 kWh (+13% !) and that it will cost £1,150 (+65% !!) even though we remain on the same fixed tariff until the end of next year. Does anyone else’s Annual Summary come up with a similarly odd calculation? I can guess the consumption increase is due to their forecast model not handling our odd consumption pattern with Spring and Autumn DHW use, but the £/kWh calculation estimate has me stumped.

That’s pretty good.  The last annual total i’ve got for us is about 4400.  Having moved from a big old house to a small flat and back into a house the size and number of occupants doesn’t actually make much difference to electricity consumption IME.  The constant background stuff – fridge/freezer, sky box, wifi, computers etc and even the bulk of lighting (kitchen/hallways/living rooms) doens’t change much.   All our appliances are modern, all LED or fluroescent lighting.   We both work from home and katie has 180 or 360w of fluorescent lighting running pretty much all day every day in the workshop which probably explains our uplift.

i’m not sure their estimates are worth anything – like yours our comsumption and cost estimates seem high.  I wonder if it’s just a standard calc that doesn’t account for any fix deals and takes no account of your actual use pattern.

… useless without spreadsheets 🙂

Is it fixed with absolutely no adjustments ? Maybe they’ve made assumptions about life after Brexit/falling out with Saudis, Russians, …

Where are you getting the 5100kWh figure from? Do you have a smart meter? If not do you submit regular monthly readings or just rely on estimated ones?

Does the following year include going back to a std tariff after the fixed one ends?

I’d give them a phone.

no adjustments, we’re fixed until next October and it expressly says:

Based on your tariff, and energy use (including VAT,
excluding any add-ons, discounts and the Warm Home
Discount if you’re eligible), we think you’ll use 5759kWh of
electricity over the next year. We believe this will cost you
£1,146.08* – this is called your future annual cost

Also as well as needing to know where you get that 5100 figure from, have you had any meter exchanges since being with OVO? Did your account open to estimated or actual reads?

no the full period is within the year left of the fixed tariff, no period of reversion and even if it were a month or two the additional cost could not get it up to that level.

smart metering. Our consumption is correct (the forecast might be out as I dont see us using much more than the 5100 of the last 12mths) It’s the pricing model for the next 12mths that seems inconsistent. I might give them a call, but I doubt its actually going to achieve anything, its just their document is incorrect rather than our contract and real expected cost.

just wondering if anyone else has received a similar report from ovo lately?

I doubt its actually going to achieve anything, its just their document is incorrect rather than our contract and real expected cost

I’d agree – just a bogus calcuation,

So I work for Ovo and actually did work on those exact figures you’re asking about. The figures should take into account your previous actual meter readings with your tariff and any tariff you may change to in the future (in your case none since you’re on the 2 year fixed). If you’ve got a smart meter then that should be a lot more accurate. If there aren’t any actual reads then the calculation goes by your estimated annual consumption (a specific figure calculated by the industry for your electricity installation) and your annual quantity (same thing but for gas).

If you’ve had smart meters for more than a year then something does seem a little out, although you may just be using more energy nowadays and not realising it. I would give customer services a call, they can have a closer look at your account to see what’s up.

cheers tetrode.

We’ve been on smart for a while now. I think the consumption data is all fine. Its reconciling a 5800 kWh consumption forecast with a £1,150 bill estimate over the same period that is inconsistent. Not the forecast consumption itself. It implies an 18p/kWh tariff (having allowed for £100 SC) when my fixed contract remains at 11.39p. I think the automated calculation is using the wrong tariff rate. Might want to check your database settings! 🙂

Yeah that is strange, and definitely shouldn’t be doing that. Give them a call and they should be able to raise it with our dev team, see what we can do.

well, to do tetrode the good grace of following his suggestion I’ve just spoken to the lovely Rebecca at OVO and she confirmed that there’s a long term glitch in some of the annual summary calculations and that they’re re-working the system to try and fix it. Apparently they even got an internal email about it this morning, so it’s on their radar. Tetrode, go check your emails! (or find someone in support who can forward it to you) 🙂

Glad you got some follow up on it! Yeah it’s a tricky thing to get right 100% of the time due to all the different factors that can affect the calculation. We’re still working on it and it’s a big priority for us due to Ofgem (quite rightly) wanting it to be as accurate as it can be.

You already have the best thing for this though which is a smart meter. As much shit as people give them, they’re going to save a lot of headaches in the future when most people have them. Just monitor your usage and make sure there aren’t any weird spikes and you should be fine.

As above though, I think the consumption forecast calculation is there or thereabouts. I know it adjusts for seasonality, consumption trends, meteorological long range forecasts etc, but Im surprised the cost calculation is unable to pick up the correct tariff rate (or rates when fixed terms end) from the customer profile.

It should do, so it’s definitely a bug. There’s a whole other process than runs alongside the consumption figure calculation that deals with cost. Takes into account everything from the length of the current tariff, rolling onto variable at the end of it or choosing the cheapest fixed tariff, standing charge costs, all that stuff. Definitely something I’ll forward on to the devs and hopefully get a ticket raised.

At the end of the day, we want to get it as right as possible because that means less customer contact, which means it costs us less, which means we can keep the rates we offer competitive.

well my fixed rate is certainly the cheapest I can get. Uswitch just shrugged its shoulders and said there’s no better contract for me!