Cape Town — Almost 5 million South African households could be without electricity in November if the software on their prepaid meters is not upgraded in time.
News 24 reports that people living in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape are most at risk when the old software system officially switches over to a new token identifier system on 24 November 2024.
The Key Revision Number recode project is underway nationwide. To recode your meter, get the two recode tokens from your electricity vendor when Eskom signals that your area is being switched over and follow the guidelines to successfully recode your meter. #KRN #RecodingMeters pic.twitter.com/Z4QHjsJgIE
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) July 2, 2024
The upgrade involves entering two special 20-digit keys, on every meter, by hand.
According to Engineering News, by the end of June, the meters of more than 600 000 City of Cape Town customers had been upgraded. The Metro, which reported in March that its roll-over project was 95% complete, started the upgrade of its customers’ meters in 2021.
Electricity customers around the country will be notified of the upgrade on their usual electricity tokens when they buy electricity, with the token showing the two 20-digit recode keys along with the usual prepaid electricity key.
Eskom data shows that the meters of more than 3 million of its customers still have to be upgraded, with almost 730 000 of those residing in KwaZulu-Natal, 540 000 in the Eastern Cape and 450 000 in Gauteng. These figures do not include customers who buy their electricity from municipalities.
While Eskom is responsible for a total of almost 7 million meters, municipalities together account for another 4.8 million.
The News24 report indicates that Eskom and the City of Johannesburg, where only 49% of the roll-over is complete, only started the upgrade last year. Many smaller municipalities have yet to start the upgrade programme.
If meters are not upgraded in time, customers’ electricity tokens will not be able to work.
Most customers around the country are being advised on how to enter the recode key themselves; however, most municipalities are offering assistance for those who are struggling to update their systems.
The City of Tshwane for example is dispatching field agents to different sectors on specific dates, while the City of Cape Town has set up a call centre.
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