Smart Meter malfunction sends customers into a panic by showing prices up to £42,000 for one day’s electricity usage as price rise kicks in

• Emily Brown, 32, of Nottingham, said her smart meter showed £42,670 spent
• Hundreds of people in similar situations took to Twitter in a panic at the prices
• One person said her 70-year-old parents’ meter showed £41,000 had been spent
• An OVO Energy spokesperson said a fix to the glitch would take place in 24 hours

A smart meter malfunction sent customers into panic by showing prices up to £42,000 for one day’s electricity usage, as the October price rises kicked in.

Hundreds of people contacted their energy firms or took to Twitter in a panic when they noticed the awry readings over the weekend.

Some customers saw eye-watering readings of tens of thousands of pounds recorded, while others saw them skyrocket to £6,000 a day, as the meters failed to adjust to the dreaded price hikes on October 1.

Mum-of-two Emily Brown got a shock when her smart meter showed she’d used £42,670 worth of electricity in just a day.

Mum-of-two Emily Brown got a shock when her smart meter showed she’d used £42,670 worth of electricity in just a day

She had had problems with the device since it was installed in April last year because it wouldn’t sync properly.

But when she checked it on Saturday – the day the new prices came in – she was stunned to see the eye-watering amount.

The gas reading showed just 40p’s worth of usage.

Mrs Brown, 32, lives in a three-bedroom semi with her husband in Nottingham and they get their energy supplied by Octopus Energy.

She said: ‘I laughed and thought ‘I hope that’s a mistake’.

‘But I assumed it was triggered by the price changes that happened on that day.’

Mrs Brown added: ‘We had the meter installed in April 2021. There have been problems from the start.

Other customers saw their readings skyrocket to £6,000 a day as the meters failed to adjust to the dreaded price hikes on October 1

‘The new meter was installed and numerous updates. I sent hundreds of emails back and forth between Octopus and myself as well as a number of phone calls.

‘Finally we believed we had the meter sorted.

‘However with the price increases this year I had turned the meter round as the cost totting up stressed me out.

‘But on Saturday, my daughter knocked the meter and said the figure of £42,670 on the screen.

‘I looked again and again, I chuckled to myself when I read “Weekly budget exceeded”. The kids asked what I was laughing at, so I told them that we had supposedly used all this electricity overnight.

‘I tried to put it into context for them, which was the price of a really nice car.

‘I knew it would be a glitch but thought it would just be mine with all our previous issues.’

Hundreds of people contacted their energy firms or took to Twitter in a panic when they noticed the awry readings over the weekend

Mrs Brown wasn’t the only one stressed out by the readings.

One said her parents, who are in their 70s, had seen a reading saying they had used £41,000.

Gill Hamilton tweeted: ‘My parents are in their 70s and so worried about the energy rises and how they can possibly afford them.

‘Today my dad went downstairs and their electric smart meter was showing this! @BritishGas @BritishGasHelp get it sorted please.’

One joked alongside a picture of their £6,400-a-day bill: ‘Think I powered the whole town last night.’

Another also tried to laugh it off, saying: ‘Do you think there is a problem with my reader @SSE?’

Another said: ‘Wtf is happening with my electricity meter?

‘Yesterday the £30 gov credit went on; today it is bleeding away at an absurd pace (I can sit and watch it tick down, with minimal actual usage).

‘Something wrong is not right, here, @yourSSE (according to my meter right now, this is my usage for the last 4 weeks-suffice it to say I did not use > £1500 last week and do not expect to this week either.’

One Tweeted, saying: ‘Can you please explain how we have used this much electricity in one day?

‘I know the rates have changed but from roughly £1.70 a day to this is extreme!!!!’

Another wrote: ‘@YourSSE Could you please fix your “smart” meters I’ve burnt through £100 of credit within 24 hours, I have lost more money in a day than I spend in a week on all my bills and groceries combined.

‘I thought @trussliz promised £2,500 per annum, not £2,500 per month!?!’

A spokesman for SSE Energy Services, which is part of Ovo, replied on Twitter: ‘Hi there. We’ve been made aware that some In Home Displays (IHD) are showing high consumption figures that are incorrect.

‘Please don’t worry as we’re aware of the situation and are working on a fix.’

Another said: ‘Wtf is happening with my electricity meter? ‘Yesterday the £30 gov credit went on; today it is bleeding away at an absurd pace (I can sit and watch it tick down, with minimal actual usage)

A separate response from another advisor added: ‘This is an issue with the display only and not the actual meter, meter reading or energy bills.

‘You don’t need to do anything and an automatic fix will happen within the next 24 hours.’

This morning, an OVO Energy spokesperson apologised for the panic, saying ‘We’re aware of a fault on a small number of our In Home Displays that’s causing them to show incorrect costs.

‘We communicated with impacted customers ahead of the error and confirmed that this impacts the display only, not the actual meter, meter readings or energy bills.

‘Customers do not need to do anything at this time as a fix will take place within 24 hours.’

The price of wholesale energy has risen steeply due to global factors such as the Ukrainian War and the government’s Price Cap was increased on October 1, allowing suppliers to in turn increase their prices.

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