Trouble for 3 million prepaid electricity users in South Africa next month

Many of the 11.64 million prepaid electricity meters in South Africa may cease to function after 24 November 2024 if they do not receive a critical update on time, and it seems things aren’t moving fast enough to avoid disaster.

This looming issue stems from a critical software update needed to ensure that the meters, which use Standard Transfer Specification (STS) technology, continue dispensing electricity.

The urgency of the situation has raised concerns as progress toward resolving the issue appears insufficient to meet the approaching deadline.

The challenge revolves around what is known as the Token Identifier (TID) Rollover event, a technical limitation that dates back to the initial rollout of STS-compliant prepayment meters in 1993.

The TID is a unique 24-digit number embedded in the tokens customers use to top up their meters.

However, on 24 November 2024, the TID will reset, rendering all existing tokens invalid.

Consequently, any new tokens generated based on the current system will be rejected, meaning that meters will no longer accept new credit, and electricity will cease to be dispensed once the remaining credit runs out.

To avert this catastrophe, Eskom and municipalities across the country have initiated a process to update the meters.

This involves customers entering a 20-digit Key Revision Number (KRN) code, which is being distributed in phases through the same platforms customers use to purchase their electricity.

In cases where customers struggle with the process, teams have been deployed to assist households with the upgrade.

Yet, despite efforts to roll out this update, the clock is ticking, and time is running short.

The process of updating the prepaid meters has been fraught with delays.

Although the warning to address the issue was given over a decade ago, the rollout has only gained significant momentum in recent years.

Eskom, which oversees nearly 6.9 million of South Africa’s 11.64 million prepaid meters, only began a pilot program in Gauteng last year.

Initial progress was slow, with only 5,800 meters receiving the necessary KRN codes.

As of mid-October 2024, Eskom’s online dashboard shows that 4.06 million meters, or 58.75%, have been updated.

Meanwhile, municipalities have performed somewhat better.

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) reports that 3.64 million of the 4.25 million meters under municipal management have been updated, equating to 87% of the total.

Eskom KRN rollover dashboard

Salga KRN rollover dashboard

Despite Eskom’s progress, approximately 2.85 million meters remain outstanding.

Recognising the risk of significant disruption, Eskom has taken additional measures.

The utility has pre-coded 6.6 million of its 6.9 million meters, allowing customers to continue purchasing electricity beyond the 24 November 2024 deadline, even if they have not completed the manual Do-It-Yourself (DIY) re-coding process.

Pre-coding is an internal step that prepares the meter for future re-coding. The customer will still need to manually input key change tokens to finalise the process.

Monde Bala, Eskom’s Group Executive for Distribution, emphasised the company’s shift in strategy to ensure seamless service for prepaid customers.

Initially, Eskom focused on promoting the DIY re-coding approach, encouraging customers to update their meters themselves.

However, Bala explained that the utility has now prioritised pre-coding the meters via its central systems.

This proactive step ensures that customers can continue purchasing electricity from authorised vendors without disruption after the TID Rollover event, even if they have not yet completed the full re-coding process.

While this pre-coding offers a safety net for millions of households, it does not completely solve the problem.

Customers whose meters have been pre-coded still need to input the key change tokens to complete the re-coding.

With only a few weeks remaining before the deadline, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done.

The dashboards tracking the update process show that over 3.4 million meters are still awaiting an update.

This means that nearly 87,574 meters need to be updated daily to meet the deadline.

However, the current rate of progress is far below what is required.

Between June and October, Eskom managed to update an average of only 2,377 meters per day.

If this pace continues, only 92,703 more meters will receive the update by 24 November, leaving millions of Eskom customers still aching to update their meters.

The situation with municipal meters is similarly concerning.

In the past few months, municipalities have managed to update approximately 727,464 meters.

Even if they maintain this pace, only another 223,394 of the remaining 565,000 meters will be updated by the deadline, leaving many customers in a precarious position.

Despite the grim numbers, Eskom remains optimistic.

Officials have assured the public that the company is making substantial progress in updating meters and that they are doing everything possible to prevent service disruptions after the deadline.

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