Prepaid electricity ‘lifeline’ for South Africa – with a catch

Eskom and municipal power utilities like Joburg’s City Power have given prepaid electricity users hope that it is not be too late to complete the meter upgrading process.

From Sunday, 24 November, all prepaid electricity meters that have not been upgraded to the KRN2 system have ceased loading electricity units.

According to Eskom’s KRN rollover dashboard, as of 24 November 2024, 1.9 million meters were still on KRN version 1.

But the conversion process from KRN1 to KRN2 can still take place.

Despite the deadline passing, City Power said its municipal meters will still be able to generate key change tokens until 31 May 2025, and it is still able to generate the three 20-digific tokens used to convert meters from KRN1 to KRN2.

This will allow customers who previously received the key change tokens and lost them to still do the conversion. It also applies to vending customers who have not yet had the chance to upgrade their prepaid meters.

However, the utility stressed that any meters who have not been converted will no longer be able to load electricity units.

To be clear: meters on KRN1 can no longer accept electricity vouchers, however, it is possible to still perform the update to KRN 2.

One area where customers will run into issues, however, is if they have been using electricity illegally, either through meter bypassing or purchasing units from so-called ‘ghost vendors’.

With KRN1-based tokens no longer being accepted, all so-called lost or stolen “ghost” vending machines have effectively become useless and will need to either be replaced or undergo a legitimate conversion.

Ahead of the rollover deadline, Eskom announced that it would be assisting what it called ‘zero buyers’—customers using electricity but not paying for it through legitimate channels, or at all—and these are the customers the ‘extended’ deadline is ostensibly targeting.

Zero buyers will have to have their prepaid meters converted and activated through legitimate processes – and in the case of City Power, any meters that have been tampered with will have to be replaced.

Eskom has warned that any meters that are not converted and dispensing legally could carry a replacement cost of R12,000.

As part of Eskom’s revenue protection measures, it fines customers with illegal connections around R6,000. Only after this fine has been paid will Eskom reconnect the customer.

City Power said that it will install new meters at no fee—however, a penalty fee will have to be paid, which the utility has suspended until 30 November so that customers can get reconnected immediately.

City Power said that customers who missed the deadline should not panic, but should instead contact its Service Delivery Centres for assistance.

“City Power has already pre-generated key change tokens for outstanding non-vending customers. This will enable us to assist in converting prepaid meters after the deadline,” it said.

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