Prepaid electricity deadline confusion cleared up
Municipalities and power utilities like Eskom have been hammering it into prepaid electricity users that they have to upgrade their prepaid meters before 24 November 2024 or else they will no longer be able to purchase power.
However, communication sent out by City Power this week announcing that the deadline had been extended to 31 May 2025 has thrown a spanner in the works.
City Power has now followed up and clarified that the extended deadline of 31 May 2025 is a grace period for the generation of Key Change Tokens only – not for the upgrade.
Prepaid electricity customers must recode their meters by 24 November 2024, as required by the Standard Transfer Specification Association (STSA).
After this deadline, meters will no longer accept electricity tokens unless they are updated to Key Revision Number (KRN) 2.
Eskom said that there will be no extension to the 24 November 2024 deadline for the Token Identifier (TID) update—it is a make or break moment for all affected.
The challenge revolves around what is known as the 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 complete the upgrade process, customers must enter a 20-digit Key Revision Number (KRN) code, which is being distributed in phases through the same platforms customers use to purchase their electricity.
This is referred to as the KRN upgrade and must be completed by 24 November 2024.
City Power’s announcement, based on a directive from the South African Local Government Association, said that the deadline for the normalisation of prepaid meters has been extended to 31 May 2025.
This applies only to the generation of key change tokens, which are unit codes that a customer gets when purchasing electricity units and are vital in facilitating coding upgrades.
“Customers who have not yet upgraded from KRN1 to KRN2 as required in a month’s time, will no longer be able to load units on their meters after the cut-off date.
“However, for those who are still in the process of normalisation of meters, there is a grace period between now and 31 May 2025.
“If their meters are normalized after the November deadline, entities can still generate key change tokens to enable metering code upgrade.
“If the May deadline passes and customers still refuse to get their meters normalized, then they face having to purchase new meters altogether,” the utility said.
The utility said that this is necessary because there are still thousands of prepaid meters that cannot be normalised, largely due to tampering and illegal bypassing. It is tracking around 140,000 of these meters.
“We apologize for any misunderstanding that the previous statement may have caused and appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure a smooth transition for all our customers.”
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