City Power pleads for access in meter audit

City Power Reuven Service Delivery Centre (SDC) officials will be on the ground to audit and normalise obsolete, faulty, or bypassed meters at no cost to customers in Naturena (Exts 6, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25 and 26) ahead of the token identifiers (TID) rollover project.

Their spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, said the TID resetting entailed replacing every non-smart meter with the new technology meters because old technology meters would stop accepting the credit tokens by November 2024.
After all, the credit token would run out of available numbers.

“This task will also involve recalibrating all smart pre-paid meters to be TID-compliant. The installed smart meters will assist in our efforts to lessen the impact of load-shedding on the city’s residents. With these gadgets, City Power can do load-limiting when 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 the smart meters to allow City Power to monitor and control the load as we battle load-shedding. City Power’s smart meters will facilitate bi-directional communication, enabling better remote communication with our customers.

“While this will, for now, be free, we will, in future, disconnect any customer found to have tempered with the newly installed meters or refused to reset the meter for TID compliance. Customers will then have to pay a reconnection fee and recovery for the period of the loss.

“We appeal to residents for co-operation and to allow our officials to gain access to their properties during the implementation of this task,” he said.

Customers who have electricity units when the meters are changed will be refunded according to the units on the meter.

City Power was aware of the trend for criminals to use counterfeit meter reading credentials to gain entry into residential homes and rob unsuspecting customers.

City Power urged customers to be vigilant at all times and only allow City Power contractors with a valid card with the following details to do work:

• A card bearer’s name and surname

• A card bearer’s ID photo

• An expiry date (if the card is already expired, that bearer is not fully authorised to work on the City Power network)

• The name of the company contracted to City Power

• No contractor is allowed to work with another person’s ID card

• Green ID cards are for meter readers and turquoise for meter maintenance or installation.

If customers are unsure of the legitimacy of the installer, they can call City Power on 011 490 7553/7911 to verify the contractor’s credentials.