News

My prepaid meter has stopped working and won’t accept any tokens? What Now?

9 November 2023 By Alan

One of the worst feelings is when your prepaid meter stops working and won’t accept any tokens.

Here are a few steps you can take to address the issue:

Check the meter display: Make sure that there are no error messages or any other indications of a problem on the meter display. If you see any error codes or messages, note them down as they may provide useful information when contacting your electricity provider. See a list of different meters and error codes here – https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/about/prepaid-meter-error-codes/
Verify the tokens: Double-check the tokens you are entering into the meter. Make sure that you are entering the correct token numbers and that they correspond to your meter’s unique identifier. It’s possible that a simple mistake in entering the token could be the cause of the issue. If you are using an Amanzi Prepaid Water Meter then this VIDEO – How to Enter your 20 Digit Prepaid Token into a Straton Prepaid Water Meter – will assist you in entering your token.
Check if you are you affected by the TID Rollout: If your prepaid meter stops accepting new tokens on or after 24 November 2023 then the problem is most likely a Token Identifier (TID) fault and you will need to update your prepaid meter (electricity, water or gas) by purchasing more units and following the instructions printed on your receipt. More info and instructions here: https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/the-tid-rollover-and-how-it-affects-your-prepaid-meter/
Contact your electricity provider: Reach out to your electricity provider’s customer service or support team. They will be able to assist you further with troubleshooting the issue. Provide them with the necessary details such as your account number, meter serial number, and any error codes displayed on the meter. If you are unsure of just who your provider is then follow the instructions under the How to find my supplier/payment processor FAQ section here: https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/about/faqs/
Request a meter inspection: If the issue persists, request a meter inspection from your electricity provider or meter supplier. They will send a technician to assess the meter and identify any faults or malfunctions that may be causing the problem.
Consider alternative payment methods: While waiting for the issue to be resolved, you may need to explore alternative payment methods for your electricity consumption. Your electricity provider can advise you on the available options such as purchasing prepaid vouchers from authorized vendors or using online payment platforms.
Ask Online: Straton Prepaid and PMD Clients can request assistance HERE.

Remember, each electricity provider may have specific procedures and troubleshooting steps for prepaid meter issues, so it’s important to contact them directly for the most accurate and personalised assistance.

Saving the environment by reducing the consumption of scarce water and electricity

27 October 2023 By Alan

Prepaid electricity meters have emerged as a practical solution for homeowners seeking more control over their electricity usage and expenses. These innovative devices allow users to monitor and manage their energy consumption efficiently, resulting in cost savings, convenience, and sustainability. In this article, we will explore the advantages of prepaid electricity meters from the perspective of homeowners, featuring quotes from satisfied users. Furthermore, we will compare three different models currently available in the market to provide a comprehensive understanding of the options at hand.

There are two scenarios when it comes to prepaid meters:

Prepaid Meters as installed by a supply authority such as your local municipality or Eskom
Private Prepaid Meters installed in a sub section of a property such as a flatlet, set of flats or units in a sectional title complex

With private prepaid meters homeowners can ensure that their tenants pay for usage of scarce resources AND the collection is simple and easy with paypoints at many large shops and online.

Cost Control and Budgeting: Prepaid electricity meters empower homeowners to take charge of their energy expenses and budget more effectively. By paying in advance for electricity usage, individuals can monitor their consumption in real-time and make informed decisions about their energy usage. This level of control enables homeowners to adjust their habits, reducing wastage and ultimately leading to significant cost savings.

John, a satisfied user, shares, “Since installing a prepaid meter, I’ve become more aware of my energy consumption. I’ve been able to reduce my monthly bills by around 20% by being mindful of my usage patterns.”

No Surprise Bills: One of the greatest advantages of prepaid electricity meters is the elimination of surprise bills. With traditional postpaid meters, homeowners often receive unexpectedly high bills at the end of the month, leading to financial strain. Prepaid meters avoid this issue by providing real-time balance updates, allowing homeowners to track their usage and avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Sarah, another satisfied user, highlights, “Gone are the days when I used to dread my electricity bill. With the prepaid meter, I know exactly how much credit I have left, so there are no more surprises. It’s a huge relief!”

Flexibility and Convenience: Prepaid electricity meters offer homeowners flexibility and convenience in managing their energy needs. Users have the option to top up their meter balance through various channels, such as online platforms, mobile apps, or local vendors. This flexibility allows homeowners to recharge their meters according to their convenience, making it easier to stay on top of their energy requirements.

David, a homeowner, explains, “I love the convenience of prepaid meters. I can top up my meter from anywhere, anytime. It’s as simple as recharging my phone. Plus, I can choose the amount I want to load based on my budget.”

Straton Pre-Paid says; “Our private prepaid electricity and water meter solutions have helped home, business and complex owners reduce consumption and charges whilst making collection of utility bills a breeze. In South Africa the close monitoring of scarce water and electricity resources is vital!”

To provide a comprehensive overview, let’s compare three popular prepaid electricity meter models currently available in the market:

Model A: This model offers advanced features like real-time usage monitoring, remote top-up options, and mobile app integration. It provides detailed consumption data, allowing homeowners to analyze their energy usage patterns and make informed decisions to optimize their consumption.
Model B: Known for its user-friendly interface, Model B focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It offers a compact design and straightforward features, making it an ideal choice for homeowners who prefer simplicity and do not require advanced monitoring capabilities. STS Compliant prepaid electricity meters include the Hexing Pre-Paid Meter available from Straton Pre-Paid.
Model C: Model C stands out for its sustainability features. It incorporates renewable energy integration, providing homeowners with the ability to monitor and optimize the usage of solar panels or other renewable energy sources. This model promotes eco-consciousness and can lead to additional savings in the long run.

Prepaid electricity meters have revolutionized how homeowners manage their energy consumption and expenses. The benefits they offer, including cost control, budgeting, elimination of surprise bills, flexibility, and convenience, make them an attractive choice for households. By featuring real-time monitoring and various top-up options, these meters empower homeowners to take control of their energy usage and make informed decisions. Moreover, by comparing different models, homeowners can choose the one that best suits their specific needs, preferences, and budget. With prepaid electricity meters, homeowners can enjoy both financial savings and a more sustainable lifestyle.

Video: How to Pair your prepaid water meter keypad:

What is KRN and Why Should You Care?

20 October 2023 By Alan

Should you have a main prepaid electricity, water or gas meter in your home it may have to be ‘recoded’ in order to continue dispensing electricity, water or gas after November 2024.

Please note that this also applies to PRIVATE pre-paid meters as supplied by Straton Electrical Pre-Paid and the many other vendors around the world.

With regards to the main electricity utilities plans to recode existing meters Eskom has provided an update on its meter recoding initiative for all its customers and says that it is on track to meet the November 2024 deadline to recode around 6.8 Million pre-paid meters.

Eskom and all the electricity distributors in South Africa are required to recode prepaid electricity meters. The current Token Identifier (TID) code will expire on 24 November 2024 and after this date all Standard Transfer Specification (STS) compliant meters will stop accepting credit tokens. Most meters in the country fall within this category. In a virtual media briefing (see video), Eskom provided an update on its Key Revision Number (KRN) rollover project which is aimed at ensuring that all Eskom 6.8 million prepaid electricity meters are recoded before the deadline. This comes after a successful Phase 1 deployment in August and September 2023, dedicated to clear all the initial glitches and teething KRN rollover process issues were completed.

Eskom has done a ‘soft rollout’ of the DIY approach and reports that over 600 000 Key Vhange Tokens have been succesfully applied. There is no charge for this service and Eskom encourages consumers to report anyone or any company wanting to charge to do the recode.

All prepaid meters must be recoded, whether you are an Eskom customer or a municipality supplied customer or a private pre-paid meter owner.

This programme is a customer DIY rollover. As a prepaid meter user, you will be guided on how to recode your own meter. It is very easy. Just follow three steps, and you are done!

Get your two key change tokens from your local or online vendor when Eskom prompts you that your area is active follow these steps:

Enter the first of the 20-digit codes into the system and wait for it to be accepted.
After the code has been accepted, the second 20-digit code must be entered.
A third code – which is the top-up token – can then be entered. Customers will know the system has been successfully updated when the top-up token is successfully loaded.

“It is all systems go for the Key Revision Number rollover project. The various provincial teams are working around the clock to ensure that everyone is recoded before the due date. We understand that there is no major project without glitches, but this is a commitment we have made to ourselves and will put every effort towards delivering on it,” said Eskom’s General Manager: Operations Enablement, Velaphi Ntuli.

Eskom confirmed that a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach is a more convenient and cost-effective approach for the rollout. Easy step-by-step guides are available on the various Eskom’s communication channels including social media platforms, Alfred Chatbot, and the Eskom website to enable a seamless process.

Progress of the rollout will be monitored centrally daily through a dashboard and support will be provided through various customer support mechanisms in place. Customers will be issued with a pair of key change tokens at the time when they purchase their normal top-up prepaid electricity via any of the Eskom approved vending channels and outlets.

Customers should make sure that all pre-purchased tokens are loaded into the meter before recoding the meter as these will not work after recoding.

“It is critical that I emphasise that the recoding of meters is done at no cost to the customers. Therefore, we caution customers against scammers who would attempt to take advantage of the recoding process and request for any form of payment for this service. Furthermore, as this is a DIY process, Eskom employees will continue to only assist customers that have logged queries and received proper reference numbers”, explained Eskom’s Senior Manager for Customer Services, Portia Papu.

“The process of buying electricity has not changed. Customers will still be able to buy electricity from major banks, online platforms, fuel-filling (service) stations, prepaid electricity vending agents and retailers across the country as they are currently doing,” added Papu.

It is important for customers to take note that should they not recode their meter, the meter will become inactive after 24 November 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: This recoding extends to all STS compliant meters including pre-paid gas and water meters.

Video: UPDATE: Eskom and Municipalities Key Revision Number (KRN) Rollover Plan for Prepaid Meters

AMI hardware manufacturing project to be rolled out in SA

3 August 2023 By Alan

A multimillion rand project set to establish two Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) hardware mass production facilities and 13 distribution satellite warehouses is to be rolled out nationwide.

The project will be administered and managed by Madinda Utilities, a Pretoria-based AMI hardware manufacturer and utilities diagnostics specialist company that has over 25 years of industrial experience in utilities cost-optimisation, diagnostics, sustainable renewable energy resources hardware distribution, installations and administration.

The company pledged an investment of R600 million at the South African Investment Conference that was hosted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in Johannesburg in April.

Madinda Utilities is engaged in the deployment of the African Utilities Distribution Industry – Growth Portfolio Investment (AfUDI-GPI) project aimed at reducing municipal utilities’ revenue collection and distribution losses, token identifier (TID) rollover deadline readiness calibration, distribution asset acquisition and asset exponentiation through the South African Municipal Bond market.

According to the Managing Director of Madinda, Ogi Madinda, the purpose of the project is to roll out advanced metering infrastructure nationally.

“The end product consists of tamper-proof, state-of-the-art electronic/digital hardware and software, which combine interval data measurement with its continuously available remote communications.

“The system is the quintessential full measurement and collection system that includes meters at the customer site, communication networks between the consumer and their distributor, such as an electric, or water utility/distributor, and data reception and management systems that make the information available to both consumers and suppliers,” Madinda said.

He added that the system will allow consumers to receive real-time energy pricing and offers from the utility to manage their meter. This will enable them to benefit from lower bills, while utilities benefit from a stable load on the grid and less need to invest in expensive new capacity.

“This is a turnkey solution for efficiency in the energy sector in South Africa. The project will enable South Africa to manufacture its own smart-grid hardware, which is currently designated for local manufacturing and content and only available through importation, solve a national utilities distribution problem and enable the country to join the global supply chain in this sector by establishing its own mass production plant for DLMS/COSEM compliant AMI hardware,” he said.

He explained that ultimately it will prevent outages, massive revenue collection losses and excessive load shedding with long-term benefits.

The long term benefits include utilities diagnostics integrity, distribution assets security and longevity, revenue collection protection and enhancement, increase in operational efficiency and performance, enhancement of customer service, demand response, demand-side management including outage detection and service restoration, enablement of customer engagement as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The project’s deployment is the African Electro-technical Standardisation Commission’s (AFSEC) recommended solution to prevent the distribution system’s demise resulting in regular and intermittent black-outs, outages, massive revenue collection losses and excessive load shedding.

Gaps to be addressed will include AMI migration, supplier development and localisation contribution, unemployment, skills development contribution and sustainable energy renewable resources distribution and installations, amongst others.

According to Madinda, the AMISA project has already been approved for grant funding from COP24’s Sustainable Development Goals to the value of more than $126 million.

The project will be rolled out in two phases, with the first phase expected to create 1 225 direct jobs, 2 770 indirect jobs in construction as well as 2 775 direct operational jobs with 26 576 indirect jobs. Humanitarian benefits will include directly addressing 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

“The project will effectively revive the revenue collection systems of municipal distributors to profitability and liquidity; conduct continental hardware calibration and security compliance for the TID Rollover Deadline increase job opportunities, skills transfer and defuse poverty and achieve utilities distribution efficiencies for 186 municipalities and Small Scale Embedded Generation Interconnection Projects that will improve their category grading, rendering municipalities equitable, profitable and sustainable to their constituencies – allowing even the smaller municipalities to benefit from the South African Municipal Bond Market,” Madinda said. – SAnews.gov.za

The TID Rollover and How it Affects your Prepaid Meter

10 July 2023 By Alan

If your prepaid meter stops accepting new tokens on or after 24 November 2023 then the problem is most likely a Token Identifier (TID) fault and you will need to update your prepaid meter (electricity, water or gas) by purchasing more units and following the instructions printed on your receipt.

Currently installed prepaid meters will automatically cease to accept new tokens on or after 24 November 2023 owing to a date rollover problem, unless each individual meter is updated. This means consumers will no longer be able to load electricity, water or gas on them after the said deadline.

“The Token Identifier (TID) rollover programme updates all prepaid meters.

NB: Tokens that were purchased but not utilised before the deadline will be rendered invalid. The amount in the meter will not be erased and will be carried over. Only the meter key will be changed, and the TID memory reset to all zeros.

ALL you Need to Know:

To update, when making the first purchase of electricity after the system rollover date, a client will receive a receipt with three tokens on it that need to be entered in the sequence as printed on the receipt. The update takes about two minutes to process. This change will affect all prepaid meters with 11 digits.

Background:

On 24 November 2024 all prepayment meters based on STS technology will stop dispensing electricity, thus presenting a significant risk to the service levels of all sub-metering vendors to end-user customers in the electricity, water and gas utilities business.

Each credit token has a unique token identifier (TID) encoded into the 20 digits to prevent token replay at the meter. The TID is referenced to a base date of 1993 and will run out of range in 2024 (known as the TID Rollover event), thus causing the prepayment meter to stop accepting new tokens.

The technical remedy is to “reset” each meter to reference a new base date of 2014 by means of entering two (2) special tokens before November 2024. This requires a substantial time, effort and resource loading on the part of the sub-metering vendor, so it is imperative that the remedial action process commences as a matter of urgency.

What Is A Token ID (TID)?

A TID is a token identification code used to uniquely identify each token that is generated. When a meter accepts a token, it stores the TID in order to prevent the same token of being accepted more than once. At the time of creation of the token, the TID is calculated as the number of minutes that have elapsed since a given base date.

Should your meter have been installed before 2014 you MAY have to take additonal steps or replace the meter.