By Luvuyo Mjekula
There is only a day left before the deadline for households to upgrade their meters, failing which they face the stark reality of going without electricity or paying up to R12 000 to replace their useless meter.
Eskom has been warning South Africans to take the following action to ensure they have continued access to electricity.
How to check and recode your meter:
To verify if your meter is ready:
• Enter 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your meter keypad.
• If it shows 1 or 1.2, your meter still needs to be recoded.
• If it shows 2 or 2.2, your meter is already updated and requires no further action.
Why It is important to recode:
“Eskom is prepared to issue tokens to all customers who have not recoded their meters, ensuring continuous and secure electricity purchases after 24 November 2024. Customers who recode by this deadline will be able to buy tokens seamlessly from all official vendors and maintain uninterrupted supply.
“If your meter remains on KRN1 after the deadline, the KRN1 tokens will no longer be accepted after 24 November 2024. Once your current credit runs out, you will lose power until the meter is replaced at the cost of R12,000.”
Meanwhile, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) also issued a statement reminding all municipal prepaid electricity customers to update their meters to KRN2 (Key Revision Number 2) before Sunday, 24 November 2024, to avoid losing electricity.
Since the Token Identifier (TID) rollover project commenced, Salga says it established a live dashboard tracking the progress of KRN2 upgrades.
“As of Thursday, 21 November 2024, about 266,144 prepaid meters still [needed]to be updated. This number is expected to drop as updates are made towards the deadline.”
Salgar energy specialist, Dr Silas Mulaudzi, explains: “Many of these meters are likely to be non-vending meters. Municipalities are currently conducting audits to identify and disconnect by-passed meters. These meters are dealt with through revenue protection programmes, not the TID (Token Identifier) rollover process, and are removed from our dashboard as they are resolved.”
Dr Mulaudzi adds: “The awareness campaign continues. We encourage customers who may not have received their key change tokens or those with holiday homes to contact or visit their municipal offices. Ward councillors are assisting elderly residents and people with disabilities. Some municipalities, particularly those with high numbers of outstanding meters, will be open over the weekend to help customers.”
Salga urges municipal customers to act now and do the right thing.
The figures on Salga’s dashboard only reflect municipal customers, not those directly supplied by Eskom.
In other power related news, the Makana Municipality has given updates on its smart meter project.
In a statement this week, the municipality said it recently secured a grant from National Treasury in partnership with Landis+Gyr to implement a smart prepayment electricity metering project to improve electricity service delivery. These new smart prepayment meters will help reduce outages/faults in the electricity system caused by electricity tampering and meter bypassing. This will result is a stable electricity supply which will enhance revenue collection and improved electricity service delivery.
The municipality says it will, in consultation with residents, embark on a process of installing smart electricity meters in various areas in Makhanda that will resolve issues with technical and non-technical losses resulting in a stable electricity provision in the area. The adoption of smart meters across various regions worldwide reflects a collective move towards more efficient, reliable, and sustainable energy systems.
The benefits of smart electricity meters for both Makana Local Municipality and its citizens:
• Enhanced control over your energy consumption, by providing real-time data on electricity usage.
• When the meters are configured as post-payment, secure remote digital meter reading eliminates human error in manual reading and estimates, thereby ensuring accurate charges for energy consumption.
• When the meters are configured as prepayment, the Municipality will be able to provide enhanced customer support by being to remotely read the prepayment tokens entered, to easier resolve customer queries.
• Smart meters support the integration of renewable energy sources into the home, allowing for a more sustainable energy consumption model.
• Through these capabilities, smart meters empower consumers with greater transparency and control over their energy use, contributing to both individual savings and broader environmental benefits.
• Daily electricity usage and trend analysis can be monitored by the municipality for improved customer service.
• The Customer Interface Unit or the meter’s display will provide valuable energy usage information and enable consumers to better control and manage their electricity consumption.
• Makana municipality will be able to remotely monitor electricity consumption and detect faulty meters or fraudulent activities.
• For Makana Municipality, the incorporation of the smart meter solution signifies the municipality’s commitment to leveraging technology to improve its operations and services. This reflects an effort to not only enhance the municipality’s internal processes but also to foster a more informed, engaged, and collaborative community, all working together towards more sustainable and efficient energy use.
Process of installation
• Installation program will start end November 2024 and run through to April 2025
• Community awareness campaigns with educational messaging about the smart prepaid meters will be conducted
• Homeowners will be notified of potential installations seven days prior to the installation date through various platforms
• The contractor will request property access for installation of the new smart prepaid meter and removal of old meter. This could require access to the house itself
• The property’s electricity will be interrupted during the time when the old meter is removed and the new meter fitted
• Final meter reading is being recorded, for postpaid meters
• The remaining credit on prepayment meters will be entered into new meter, please ensure that all existing tokens are entered into the current prepaid meter before replacement
• The new smart prepaid meter will be installed immediately after the removal of the old meter, and electricity will be restored to the property.
• All installers will carry clear identification cards, please ensure inspection before allowing access to premises
