City Power to audit, replace and reset pre-paid meters at no cost to customers

City Power has intensified its programme to audit, replace and reset prepaid meters at no cost to customers across the City of Johannesburg ahead of the token identifier (TID) rollover project as of August 15.

The replacement and resetting of these meters are crucial ahead of the TID rollover project. This task seeks to ensure that all smart prepaid meters are TID-compliant.

Most of the meters are not smart, and the TID resetting entails every non-smart (old technology) meter being replaced with the new technology meters and reset.

All prepaid meters on the old technology will stop dispensing electricity on November 24 next year, because the credit token will run out of available numbers unless the meters are reset. The customers who bought electricity units when the meters were changed will have the units carried over according to the units on the meter.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the smart meter project also aimed to address the ongoing energy crisis. Load-shedding has hugely impacted the residents of Johannesburg, businesses, and the country.

“The installed smart meters will, in addition, assist us and the residents of Johannesburg in reducing electricity consumption through the use of remote load-limiting functions and ultimately contribute to the management and reduction of load-shedding. With these gadgets, City Power can do load-limiting every time Eskom demands some megawatts or when consumption reaches critical levels.

“As a result, this programme will ensure unmetered customers, especially in non-affluent areas, have smart meters which will enable City Power to monitor and control the load as we battle load-shedding. City Power smart meters are designed to facilitate bi-directional communication, enabling better remote communication with our customers.

“City Power-authorised agents will visit customers’ residential homes in phases across Johannesburg and will be easily identifiable, wearing yellow TID-branded bibs or T-shirts. They will all carry valid ID cards with their ID photo, name and surname, and expiry date. The drive will consist of 200 City Power-authorised agents going house to house to audit meters to reach the daily target of 4 000 households.

“The entity has engaged with the ward councillors, who support this programme. As a result, we appeal to residents for co-operation and to allow our officials to gain access to their properties during the implementation of this task.

“City Power is aware of the growing trend among criminals using counterfeit meter reading credentials to gain entry into residential homes and rob unsuspecting customers. Customers may verify the TID agents’ credentials by calling the number on their branded bibs or valid ID cards. Customers are urged not to pay anyone for TID meter resetting during this task.

“The City Power customer contact centre is on 0800 202925 or 011 490 7484, and the various service delivery centres’ customer desks will be ready to support customers during this period,” explained Mangena.