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Yes, Your Private Prepaid Meter May also be Affected

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  • South Africa’s TID Rollover Progress
  • Dashboard reports NO progress from Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
  • 86% of Municipal prepaid meters have been upgraded
  • Eskom still has to issue 2.9 Million Key Change Tokens
  • 92 941 meters need to be updated per day to reach 24 November 2024 deadline

SALGA has established a dashboard where the status of TID rollover meter reset is displayed. The dashboard consists of various parameters on the TID rollover data, such as total number of prepayment meters to be reset, number of prepayment meters that have been reset per municipality, outstanding number of prepayment meters. It is from this background that SALGA will collect data from municipalities on a quarterly basis by means of an online questionnaire.

Want to know how your municipality is performing?

  1. Select the drop down for your province
  2. Tick the box for your municipality
  3. Read the results

SALGA’s main dashboard reports that 3 615 285 (86%) or prepaid meters have been reset with 599 030 (14%) meters outstanding.

The above numbers do NOT include Eskom’s direct clients using prepaid electricity meters – those numbers are worse: Eskom’s KRN rollover started in August 2023, but in the 14 months since, it has updated less than 60% of the 6.9 million prepaid meters on its database.

That would make around 10.5 Million municipal or Eskom direct prepaid electricity meters installed in South Africa.

The above numbers DO NOT include the massive prepaid meter numbers installed by companies like Straton Prepaid, though. That market is serviced by around 512 Payment Processing companies and the number of units installed is a moving target hard to pinpoint.

Eskom’s Key Revision Number Dashboard:

Eskom Dashboard.

Key change tokens are issued as clients purchase electricity – the process is two fold:

Eskom will decide which area will become ‘live’
When clients purchase electricity they will receive two key change tokens from the local or online vendor that they need to key into the keypad.

Meters that have not been upgraded will stop working after 24 November 2024.

Click here: https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/need-to-confirm-that-your-prepaid-meter-has-been-upgraded/ to check if your meter HAS been upgraded.

We THINK that we may have spotted a concern with the dashboard, though:

We selected the Eastern Cape and then Nelson Mandela Bay and the numbers reported showed that of the 145 576 prepaid meters to be reset NONE had been done so.

Local residents are well aware of this reset as they receive notifications on their purchase slips and via adverts on local radio stations.

Let us assume the best case scenario that the numbers of prepaid meters reset have just not been reported to SALGA by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to update the dashboard!

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES – This reset exercise will reveal the meter numbers that may:

  1. Not be working
  2. Be bypassed
  3. Topped up via nefarious means

And this represents a potential recovered revenue stream for municipalities and Eskom alike – we will wait and see if these income streams will have a downward pressure on future increases!

Need to Confirm That Your Prepaid Meter HAS Been Upgraded?

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If you are a KRN 1 then worry, If you are a KRN 2 then you are good.

By 24 November 2024 ALL prepaid meters in South Africa will need to be recoded.

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. This project is known as the Key Revision Number (KRN) rollover project.

See: What is KRN and Why Should You Care? for more info.

This project 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!

Your two key change tokens will be issued when you purchase electricity when your area is active.

You will need to follow these steps:

  1. Enter the first of the 20-digit codes into the system and wait for it to be accepted.
  2. After the code has been accepted, the second 20-digit code must be entered.
  3. 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.

Some customers will have done this ages ago, some properties and prepaid meters will have new owners and many are now asking HOW they will see whether their prepaid meters have been recoded or not.

In order to see if your prepaid meter is recoded and will work after 24 November 2024 see below:

  • When next you purchase electricity examine the slip given to you with your TID Code
  • Towards the bottom of your slip you will see a reference to KRN
  • If the number after/below KRN is 1 then your meter has NOT been upgraded yet
  • If the number after/below KRN is 2 then your meter HAS been upgraded.
KRN Upgrade Notification
How To Tell If Your Prepaid Meter HAS Been Upgraded (or Not). Photo: Straton Prepaid

Alternative Method:

According to Councillor Angus McKenzie you punch the following code into your prepaid meter: 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 – push Enter.

If the display shows; “rEu 2” then you have upgraded and if it says 1, then you need to upgrade.

Link to his video: https://www.facebook.com/reel/573388385074223

UPDATE: If you do the above on a Landis+Gyr prepaid meter and get this response – 1.2 – instead of just a 1 or a 2 it means that your meter is still on KRN1 and still needs to be updated.

Eskom Provided This Information:

To check if your prepaid meter has been recoded to KRN 2, enter 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your meter.

Should the above number not work please punch in the unique numbers below according to the make of your meter:

  • L&G (E4560) – i057 enter
  • L&G (PLC2) – i057
  • Conlog – #005#
  • Voltex – 005 enter
  • Nyamaleza – Press red and hold until display dots, then type 005 enter

If the meter displays 2 this means that the meter has been recoded.

If the meter displays 1 then consumers need to update their details through Alfred the Eskom Chatbot at https://alfred.eskom.co.za/chatroom by selecting ‘Update My Details’ and completing the fields displayed.

 

What is KRN and Why Should You Care?

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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:

  1. Enter the first of the 20-digit codes into the system and wait for it to be accepted.
  2. After the code has been accepted, the second 20-digit code must be entered.
  3. 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.

Related: https://straton.co.za/pre-paid/the-tid-rollover-and-how-it-affects-your-prepaid-meter/

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