Guaranteed Standards of Performance (GSOP): Our promises to you

What are Guaranteed Standards of Performance?

Guaranteed Standards of Performance are a set of service standards created by Ofgem. If we fail to meet these, we are required to pay £40 into your OVO account. This is our way of saying sorry. It’s sometimes called GSOP compensation, or a GSOP payment.

When can you get a GSOP payment?

Here’s a bit more about the standards we need to follow. If we break any of these, you’ll get a GSOP payment.

Meter appointments

Sometimes you might need to book an appointment for an OVO engineer to visit your home – for instance, to install a new meter.

When you contact us to book an appointment, we’ll offer you the earliest available date, with a 4-hour time slot. If it’s to install a smart meter, we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s within 6 weeks. 

If we need to reschedule your appointment, we’ll let you know at least 1 working day in advance. We’ll also make sure your appointment runs smoothly by sending a skilled, experienced engineer with the right tools for the job.

If we don’t meet any of these commitments, we’ll credit £40 into your account.

Reconnecting your supply

If your electricity and/or gas supply has been disconnected because of unpaid charges, and you’ve now paid the outstanding balance,  we’ll reconnect your supply within 24 hours.

If you pay your charges outside of working hours, we’ll aim to reconnect your supply the next working day. 

If it takes longer than 24 hours to reconnect your supply, we’ll credit £40 into your account.

Faulty meters

Depending on what type of meter you have in your home, here’s what we’ll do if you think your meters aren’t working.

Credit meters

If there’s an issue with your credit meter, we’re committed to sorting it quickly and within 5 working days we’ll:

• Assess whether your meter is faulty

• Agree on the next steps

• Confirm the results and next steps in writing

If we don’t meet any of these commitments, we’ll credit £40 into your account for each failure. If we don’t make this payment within 10 working days, we’ll pay you an extra £40.

Prepayment meters

If you think your prepayment meter is broken and you’ve lost power, we’ll arrive at your home or fix the issue remotely:

• Within 3 hours if you’ve contacted us during a working day (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm)

• Or within 4 hours if you’ve contacted us on a weekend or bank holiday

If you think your prepayment meter is broken and your power’s still on, we’ll confirm if the meter is faulty, fix the fault, or replace the meter:

• Within 3 hours if you’ve contacted us during a working day (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm)

• Or within 4 hours if you’ve contacted us on a weekend or bank holiday

If you contact us outside of working hours, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can the next day.

If we don’t meet these promises, we’ll credit £40 into your account.

Smart meters and In-Home Displays (IHD)

If you have either a credit or prepayment smart meter and In-Home Display (IHD), and think that it's not working as it should, the same timeline to fix the issue applies. You’ll also get the same compensation. This covers the following scenarios:

• We aren’t getting readings from your smart meter

• You’ve been sent an inaccurate bill because we haven’t got readings from your smart meter

• Your IHD isn’t showing accurate real-time information, like energy use, tariff details or energy costs

• You’re unable to top up your smart prepayment meter remotely

Final billing

If you’ve decided to leave OVO, we’ll send you a final statement within 6 weeks after:

• You tell us you’re moving out, or

• Your new energy supplier tells us you’re switching

If we don’t meet this deadline, we’ll pay you £40 in compensation.

Refunding final credit balance

After we send your final bill, any positive balance remaining in your account will be automatically refunded. If you don’t receive your refund within 10 working days, we’ll pay you £40 in compensation.

Switching to OVO in 5 working days

When you switch to OVO, our aim is to get you up and running as quickly as possible.

With faster switching, changing energy suppliers typically takes around 5 working days, unless we’ve agreed a different date with you. There are times when your switch might take a little longer. For more details, please see the “When switching might take longer” section of our Faster Switching Policy.

If we don’t complete your switch within 5 days, we’ll credit £40 into your account unless:

• We don’t have all the information needed to complete your switch

• We think there’s evidence of a fraudulent switch

• The delay is for any other reason beyond our control

Erroneous transfer

If your supply was transferred to OVO without your permission, that’s called an ‘erroneous transfer’. Please get in touch with your old energy supplier to let them know.

You may be entitled to compensation of £40 or more. The exact amount, and which supplier pays it, will depend on the specific circumstances of the erroneous transfer.

Find out more about erroneous transfers and why they happen.

Electricity Distribution Networks and Gas Transporters

Electricity Distribution Networks and Gas Transporters are separate to your energy supplier. They’re responsible for the infrastructure - like towers, cables and pipelines- that deliver electricity and gas to your home.

If they cause a fault or an issue, they may be required to pay you compensation. In some cases, we’ll make that payment on their behalf.

When this happens, we’ll credit this into your account. If you don’t get it within 10 working days, we’ll add £40 to this payment.

When you may not be eligible for GSOP compensation?

In some situations, we may not offer a £40 compensation payment. These include:

• If one of our engineers can’t make it to your appointment due to circumstances beyond our control, such as severe weather

• If you tell us that you don't want us to take action on the problem you reported

• If your meter's been tampered with

• If we can’t get access to your meter or home

• If you turn down our offer to fix a faulty prepayment meter

Please note that all of the information on this page is subject to change if Ofgem publishes new guidance.