Eskom denies prepaid electricity catastrophe coming

Eskom says it is on “track” and “progressing well” with updating its direct customers’ prepaid meters to avoid the devices becoming non-functional on 24 November 2024.
At some point on that date, every Standard Transfer Specifications-compliant prepaid electricity meter in the world will stop accepting new voucher tokens unless it receives a Key Revision Number (KRN) code.
That includes about 11.64 million prepaid electricity meters in South Africa.
The issue is caused by one of the anti-fraud measures built into STS-compliant prepaid systems — a timer that started counting on 1 January 1993.
To prevent the reuse of electricity tokens, each token has a unique token identifier (TID) encoded in its 20 digits.
The TID system will run out of range on 24 November 2024, known as the TID rollover event. This will cause the prepaid meter to stop accepting new tokens.
To prevent this event, electricity distributors like Eskom and municipalities are relying on their customers to update their meters by entering a 20-digit Key Revision Number (KRN) code like a regular electricity credit token.
In some areas, Eskom and the municipalities have deployed teams to help households upgrade their meters.
These are being made available in a phased manner, so many people who have not updated their meters will not have received the code.
In an update on its progress with the KRN rollover, Eskom said it was “on track”, with 3.61 million or 52% of its 6.9 million prepaid meters already recoded as of 15 May 2024.
“The main Eskom meter recoding project in all the nine provinces started in August 2023 after a successful pilot in Gauteng, and since then, a rapid approach of ensuring that customers are empowered with the necessary information and supporting channels to do it themselves was adopted,” Eskom said.
Eskom group executive for distribution Monde Bala said the utility continued to implore and educate its customers to embrace the DIY recording process.
“Our teams are available to promptly assist those customers who are experiencing challenges and have logged queries with reference numbers,” Bala said.
The utility said it plans to keep up its rapid pace to ensure all its meters are recoded before the deadline.
“Some of these plans involve auditing and fixing meters that are faulty, bypassed or not buying,” said Eskom.
Data shows Eskom and municipalities are not on track
Eskom’s update on the KRN rollover comes shortly after MyBroadband reported that the rate of recoding would need to accelerate if the power utility and municipalities intend to have all meters updated on time.
In addition to Eskom’s 6.9 million prepaid meters, municipalities have around 4.74 million STS-compliant meters that require the update.
While more than half of both cohorts have been recoded, MyBroadband’s calculations showed that the number of meters updated daily will have to increase radically over the next six months.
Over the next six months, roughly 5.43 million prepaid meters must be updated, which is more than 28,200 meters per day.
From 19 October 2023 to 15 May 2024, an average of about 14,000 Eskom prepaid meters were updated daily.
If Eskom’s DIY process continues at that pace, only 2.69 million more meters will receive the update by 24 November 2024.
That leaves over 600,000 — or 8.76% — of Eskom’s meters at risk of being unable to take any more tokens by the deadline.
The municipal rollover rate is even more concerning — with around 3,900 meters updated daily.
Unless municipalities pick up speed, around 1.36 million municipal meters, over a quarter of the total, will not be updated on time.
The table below shows estimates of how many prepaid meters will not be recoded on time at the current pace of the KRN rollover.
Estimated prepaid meters | ||
Eskom | Municipalities | |
Completed | 3,605,918 | 2,634,399 |
Daily rollover rate | 14,009 | 3,900 |
Estimated additional KRN rollovers by 24 November 2024 based on current rates | 2,689,728 | 748,800 |
Estimated total KRN rollover | 6,295,616 | 3,383,199 |
Estimated prepaid meters outstanding | 604,244 (8.76%) | 1,359,546 (28.67%) |