Eskom prepaid meter warning

Eskom has warned that the 24 November 2024 deadline for updating prepaid electricity meters will not be extended, adding that they will be rendered inoperable if not updated by that date.

As of 17 October 2024, roughly 4.2 million Eskom direct customers had updated their meters, leaving 2.2 million outstanding, while nearly 400,000 municipal customers still need to apply the update.

“Eskom is urging prepaid electricity customers to recode their meters by 24 November 2024, as required by the Standard Transfer Specification Association,” said Eskom.

“After this deadline, meters will no longer accept electricity tokens unless they are updated to Key Revision Number (KRN) 2.”

The power utility says it is committed to a smooth transition and ensuring uninterrupted service for its customers.

“Eskom is intensifying its awareness campaign to ensure all customers are informed and encourages those who have not yet recoded their meters to act quickly to avoid service disruptions,” it added.

The need to update prepaid electricity meters stems from the date-linked security mechanism that has counted down since January 1993. The system will run out of range by 24 November 2024.

Eskom and municipal customers must enter two codes to update to the new KRN. Doing so resets the base date to January 2014, allowing the meters to run until 2045.

Large numbers of both municipal and Eskom direct customers are at risk of their meters becoming inoperable.

For all municipal customers to successfully migrate to the new KRN system, 11,642 must update their meters daily between now and the deadline.

It has been slightly below that rate in the past month, with 291,167 meters being updated since 16 September, representing a rate of 9,393 meters daily.

However, Eskom’s situation is far worse. It still has nearly 4.2 million meters to update, and its customers only updated just over 70,000 meters between 18 September and 17 October 2024.

This represents a rate of 2,525 meters daily over the past month. With 2.7 million meters outstanding, 79,744 of its customers must update their meters each day between now and 24 November.

Electricity theft headache

The slow rollover rate could indicate that many prepaid electricity users have bypassed their meters illegally or by illegal electricity tokens from “ghost” vendors using stolen issuing machines.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena recently revealed that nearly 40% of prepaid meters in the country aren’t vending power, indicating high meter fraud.

If caught, customers could face hefty fines and extensive power disconnections.

Mokwena said Eskom slaps guilty customers with fines of around R6,050 and disconnects them until the penalty is paid.

“We’ve got customers that we have disconnected because when we audited their meters, we found that customers have done these illicit behaviours,” she said.

“The process is that we disconnect the customer. We fine the customer depending on what the customer is consuming. If it’s a 60amp or 20amp customer, we fine the customer about R6,050.”

“The customer stays disconnected until they pay that amount,” she added.

Mokwena explained that Eskom has disconnected entire areas in some instances, such as when it finds that a high portion of customers in a neighbourhood are illegally connected.

“We do disconnect these customers until we come to some agreement where they pay their penalties. We then replace the meters that they would have vandalised,” she said.