Deciphering an electricity meter serial number

I have sympathy for you with dealing with BG. I've recently gone through the process of getting the gas supply discontinued ('cos my new heat pump is up and running nicely so I don't need gas any more).. They clearly don't have a button for that. They managed to mess up just about every stage of the process, seemed to know nothing of what their organisation had already done, and the number of times I had to repeat the same basic information even on the same chat was painful. Several times I was convinced I was "chatting" to an AI bot rather than a human. They did get there in the end though, but it took a lot of doing for what (I imagined) should have been a fairly simple process.Be persistent!

I'm not quite following what you want to achieve with the meter serial number though. You presumably have the number of the meter you've got - which is the important one, and the MPAN should be on your bills (check against old ones to verify it's the same from before the meter swap - AFAIK it should remain unchanged).  What's the relevance of other meters of the same batch? - even if the numbers were issued in sequence - that would presumably be at the factory, so likely would have been jumbled a few times - at the depot being put into the van, taken out of the van, etc etc. 

   - Andy.

AJJewsbury said:

I'm not quite following what you want to achieve with the meter serial number though.

Andy, thank you.

Until Russia invaded Ukraine, all was well. Then the smaller suppliers folded because they did not have the resources to buy futures, so I ended up with BG. On the face of it, the price cap makes it pretty irrelevant who supplies your leccy.

To clarify, I have an old SP supply to my house and a newer TP supply to my garage. Whilst I could get a tariff with a low standing charge, there was no urgent need to connect the latter to the former.

So BG has attached the new SP smart meter to the TP MPAN, which means that I am getting billed twice for the same leccy: once (on an estimated basis) on the old 'dumb' meter, which is in landfill, and a second time through the smart meter on the wrong MPAN.

You will not be surprised that I am in the process of switching (to Octopus), but only the TP supply for the moment. What I want to pre-empt is the smart meter remaining attached to the MPAN. Therefore, I want to say that the SN of the smart meter shows that it is SP, which could not possibly meter TP.

I have tried to be brief. Is that any clearer?

I want to say that the SN of the smart meter shows that it is SP, which could not possibly meter TP.

Ah OK. That sounds tricky - a) working that out and b) convincing the call centre of your logic.

I might be easier to just take digital photo of the meter (complete with serial number and connections) - that should be sufficient to show it's not on the 3-phase MPAN. And maybe one for your 3-phase incomer (and whatever meter it still has) - you never know they might understand better that something's wrong if they can see the serial number of your other meter doesn't match their records. Their chat system has a facility to upload image files (as I found out when they "lost" my old meter they'd removed so didn't have a final reading - luckily I'd been paranoid enough to take a photo of the meter just before it was removed).

   - Andy.

AJJewsbury said:

luckily I'd been paranoid enough to take a photo of the meter just before it was removed

I forgot that step, although a photo of it disconnected and sitting on the ground might have been more persuasive.

It did occur to me that a SP meter could be connected to a TP supply - it just ignores the two unconnected phases. My parents used to live at the end of a street and quite possibly the end of the main came up the garage wall with only one phase connected.

Any road, today I was switched to Octopus, which also seems to have its call centre in South Africa. So I have sent a photo of the TP meter, which was supposedly removed on 24 Nov 25.

They also wanted a photo of the smart meter, which is not connected to their MPAN, and which they do not supply, but the telephonist was charming, so I gave in.

AJJewsbury said:

luckily I'd been paranoid enough to take a photo of the meter just before it was removed

I forgot that step, although a photo of it disconnected and sitting on the ground might have been more persuasive.

It did occur to me that a SP meter could be connected to a TP supply - it just ignores the two unconnected phases. My parents used to live at the end of a street and quite possibly the end of the main came up the garage wall with only one phase connected.

Any road, today I was switched to Octopus, which also seems to have its call centre in South Africa. So I have sent a photo of the TP meter, which was supposedly removed on 24 Nov 25.

They also wanted a photo of the smart meter, which is not connected to their MPAN, and which they do not supply, but the telephonist was charming, so I gave in.