ESB Networks issue for smart meters - heads up

lff12 said:
I so hate it when reporters entirely misreport a technical problem. The problem is with ESB Networks data collection, there's nothing wrong with your smart meter.
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Its the independent - are actually you surprised?

Journalistic standards are dreadful these days. Its all about clicks and getting people riled up as good news doesn't sell.

They'd be better off writing a story about the error and getting an absolute assurance from ESB networks AND the suppliers that they have taken immediate steps to ensure the error does not transfer to peoples bills.

That would give comfort to readers. Sadly, the click bait style of journalism these days means readers end up with trash.
 
peemac said:
Journalistic standards are dreadful these days. Its all about clicks and getting people riled up as good news doesn't sell.
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Exactly, tying this story to the ongoing smart meter disinformation/ hysteria serves them nicely. Someone screwing up and letting a software bug through to production systems doesn't whip up the same frenzy.
 
Leo said:
Someone screwing up and letting a software bug through to production systems doesn't whip up the same frenzy.
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Not a great look for ESB networks though is it, hopefully those people do not work on the software for critical parts of the actual network infrastructure?
 
joe sod said:
Not a great look for ESB networks though is it,
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An industry average of ~15 defects per 1,000 lines of code make it past testing into production releases. This is a minor blip no one will be talking about in a month, it's not on the scale of mixing up imperial and metric units that caused the $200M Mars Climate Orbiter to burn up, or the initial release of Apple Maps where entire cities would disappear.
 
mathepac said:
My Electric Ireland bill is now 2 or 3 days overdue
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I'm not sure how or even if this relates to the glitch(es)/Indo headline hysteria the subject of the thread, but I rang Electric Ireland today and their rep told me my bill was issued on 5th March. I usually get emailed notification of the bill but despite searching inboxes/spam folder etc for it, the latest bill I have from Electric Ireland is for 7th January, the last but one billing cycle, paid by DD as usual on 21st January.

Prompted by the rep on the phone, I logged into my online account to see that my account shows a zero balance on the greeting screen (which is what I'd expect in the absence of outstanding charges) but when I click to download my latest bill, I get one dated 5th March, with a debit balance due, scheduled for payment on 20th March.

Between them it seems the ESB group of companies have had more than one software problem in the recent past only one of which hit the headlines. Worrying?
 
Smart meter data notification

An internal processing issue has arisen following a software upgrade. The issue is resolved and we are currently correcting affected data. Smart graphs and usage information are temporarily unavailable from March 5. We apologise for any inconvenience
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As per ESB Online Account, most be some major work going on there.
 
mathepac said:
when I click to download my latest bill, I get one dated 5th March, with a debit balance due, scheduled for payment on 20th March.
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Direct Debit taken from my bank today as per the agreed schedule. So it seems that despite their inability to keep their software working properly or to keep customers notified as per contractual agreements, the ESB group of companies never lost the ability to take our money.
 
m.independent.ie

ESB Networks refuses to pay customers compensation over smart meter glitch

ESB Networks is refusing to pay compensation to customers affected by a smart meter blunder, with householders now fearing they will get bills telling them they owe thousands of euro.
m.independent.ie m.independent.ie

Im not sure why someone would look for compensation unless ESB networks actually took the 1000× times bill from peoples accounts?
Who writes the software for this sort of thing is it ESB direct employees or contractors?
Crucially who writes the software for the power station infrastructure that ESB owns themselves, hopefully not the same guys?
 
mathepac said:
Scare-mongering by the Indo, pretty disgusting behaviour, manufacturing headlines and "news" again.
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Yeah a colleague came and told me about this. It didn't make sense unless someone was actually charged.
I told him to go to ComReg if he gets a bill above what he expects. He just changed to a smart meter 3 days before this. I did say to him that the data on the meters themselves were not changed so it should be ok.
Generally in principle if ESB N have a metering problem and you are overcharged they will not charge you more.
But if there is a fault and you end up paying less then its on them. (Happened to me with a mechanical meter that got stuck in night mode).
 
I downloaded my data from ESBN yesterday and notice that there is still no data beyond 5th March. Doesn't look like there has been any quick fix anyway.
 
Id say the power station infrastructure, turbines etc software not done by ESB but probably by siemens or whoever, that would be major if a mistake like that was made with the actual infrastructure.
The fact that ESB are keeping quiet on the whole thing suggests that it is their own staff and not a contractor, otherwise they would let the contractor hang out to dry and be saying in publicity that its a contractor mistake and not their own.
 
Same for me, the ESB webpage still shows no data past the 5th, but looking at the usage details in the Yuno App that matches my usual pattern and for those days where I know I used more is also showing more.

So backend might be fixed and they prioritized sending the data to the companies rather than to the consumer website.
 
You could be right. My Electric Ireland account does seem to show the correct usage for early March too, even though the ESB Networks smart data account doesn't.
 
Data now starting to appear now on the ESBN portal (in my case up to Mar 28th) so this could be resolved very soon now
 
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