City Power urges prepaid customers to complete meter upgrades before deadline
With a critical Token Identifier (TID) rollover cut-off approaching, City Power emphasises the need for prepaid customers to complete their metering upgrades.
City Power is calling on prepaid customers to complete their upgrades before the imminent cut-off date, November this year, following a recent clarification regarding the Token Identifier (TID) rollover deadline.
The initial extension communicated by City Power, which moved the TID rollover deadline from November 24, 2024, to May 31, 2025, specifically pertains only to the generation of key change tokens.
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To rectify and clarify the previous message, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said, “While the deadline for generating key change tokens has been extended, the original TID rollover deadline of 24 November 2024 remains in effect for all prepaid customers who have not upgraded their metering codes. It is crucial that all prepaid customers complete their TID rollover by next month,” Mangena said.
Mangena said the South African Local Government Association had stipulated that the postponement of the deadline applied exclusively to the generation of key change tokens.
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“These tokens are essential for purchasing electricity units and for facilitating necessary coding upgrades. Customers who fail to transition from KRN1 to KRN2 will be unable to load units onto their meters after the cut-off date.
“For those still in the process of normalising their meters, there is a grace period until May 31, 2024. If meters are normalised after the November deadline, customers will still be able to generate key change tokens necessary for upgrading their metering codes.
However, if the May deadline passes and normalisation is refused, customers might have to purchase new meters altogether, Mangena added.
City Power reports a remarkable 99% completion rate in upgrading vending pre-paid meters across the Johannesburg Service Delivery Centres, with many areas achieving more than 99.5% compliance.
“We are confident that all of our vending customers’ meters will have been fully upgraded by the November deadline,” Mangena said, encouraging customers to engage with the process.
However, a substantial challenge remains, with more than 140 000 meters currently not vending, primarily due to instances of tampering.
“Many customers are bypassing their meters to avoid paying for the electricity they use, and this has led to resistance against allowing our technicians access for necessary audits.
“We are actively addressing this problem and are committed to ensuring all customers are metered accurately and contributing fairly for their electricity usage.”.
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