How to update your prepaid electricity meter
The deadline for updating your prepaid electricity meter is fast approaching, and many South Africans may still not know exactly how to process the update.
Non-updated prepaid electricity meters will become non-operational on 24 November 2024, giving residents less than a month to process the upgrade.
Eskom provides a step-by-step guide on updating your prepaid electricity meter alongside its Key Revision Number (KRN) dashboard.
The first step is determining whether Eskom or your municipal power provider has recoded your meter from KRN 1 to KRN 2.
Customers can enter the code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on their prepaid electricity meter’s keypad to view their status. The screen will display the number 1 or 2, and in some cases, it may also display letters alongside the KRN number.
If the meter displays the number 1, it is still on KRN 1 and must be recoded to KRN 2.
“If your meter has not been recoded, it will not accept the tokens you have purchased, which means it will stop working,” says Eskom.
“All prepaid meters must be recoded, whether you are an Eskom customer or a municipally supplied customer.”
The process of recoding your meter yourself is as follows:
- Get your two key change tokens from your local or online vendor when Eskom prompts you that your area is active
- Enter the first 20-digit recode token and wait for it to be accepted
- Enter the second 20-digit recode token and wait for it to be accepted
- Enter the 20 digits of your electricity voucher to recharge on KRN version 2
The power utility notes that once updated, any tokens purchased in advance will not work on the meter.
Eskom also lists several support contacts for residents who experience trouble trying to recode and update their meters. We have provided the contacts in the table below.
| Province | Contact person | Contact number |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | Kanyisa Mtyalela | 083 681 9161 |
| Free State | Eugene Myburgh | 072 610 2797 |
| Gauteng | Solly Matebula | 082 579 4334 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | Helmut Oellermann | 082 572 7931 |
| Limpopo | Tendani Moloto | 083 656 1408 |
| Mpumalanga | Jonathan Baloi | 083 721 3842 |
| North-West | Ntidiseng Makgamatha | 082 937 6302 |
| Northern Province | Zandisile Nangu | 082 926 4058 |
| Western Cape | David Ockhuis | 083 326 1887 |
Time running out
All prepaid meters running on the Standard Transfer Specifications (STS) system will stop accepting new tokens on 24 November 2024, as the time-based security mechanism will run out of range on that date.
The security feature includes a unique token identifier number with every issued electricity credit to prevent the re-use of tokens.
Implementing the KRN 2 update resets the base date to January 2014, allowing the meters to run until 2045.
As of 25 October 2024, nearly 2.5 million Eskom direct customers had yet to update their meters. With 29 days until the reset date, 85,254 customers must update their meters daily to meet the deadline.
Customers who fail to update before 24 November will be unable to load electricity tokens until they have updated their prepaid meter.
This may be a big ask, as only roughly 28,500 Eskom customers updated their prepaid meters daily between 21 and 25 October 2024.
However, the slow update rate for Eskom direct customers could indicate large-scale electricity theft in the country, with a large number of customers possibly bypassing their meters or buying illegal electricity tokens from ghost vendors.
According to the South African Local Government Association’s KRN dashboard, 375,539 municipal customers haven’t updated their meters yet.
This means roughly 12,950 customers must update their prepaid meters each day to ensure all customers are on KRN 2 by 24 November.
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