Residents urged to upgrade prepaid meters as deadline looms

CAPE TOWN/JOHANNESBURG - Electricity users have until this Sunday to recode and update their pre-paid meters.

Meters still using Key Revision Number 1 (KRN1) will no longer accept electricity tokens after Sunday, 24 November.

This means that once the current credit is depleted, power will be lost and the meter will become inoperable.

This will necessitate a meter replacement that could cost up to R12,000 at the customer's expense.

When buying electricity tokens from authorised vendors, customers will be provided with two sets of 20-digit codes needed to recode and update their meters.

Eskom's Daphne Mokwena explains: "These meters were set 30 years ago for the software to expire in 30 years and that 30 years is on the 24th of November and hence, when we get the question that can you extend the date, unfortunately, we cannot extend the date and there is nothing that as Eskom, we can do."

Mokwena said Eskom started its public awareness campaigns in August 2023.

"From Eskom's side, we have got about 6.9 million pre-paid meters that we needed to update and we are sitting currently at about 5 million meters that we have updated. All it takes is for you to go to an authorised vendor and buy a credit token because if you are still going to that vendor that is not authorised, you won't receive your 20-digit numbers."

Meanwhile, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has described Sunday’s deadline as a hard stop and consumers who miss the cutoff will have to foot the bill for the upgrade.

Ramakgopa revealed that 2.1 million meters were yet to be migrated, placing their users at risk of not having access to electricity come Monday.

While he said 6.9 million meters have been upgraded since the start of the campaign in August last year, Ramokgopa explained the process at a press briefing on Wednesday.

"Now when we recode, there's no need for us to substitute the meter, but beyond the 24th, we have to physically remove the meter and that comes at a cost, it's a significant cost and that cost must be borne by the consumer."