Eskom hails prepaid meter upgrade project a success

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With Eskom hailing the completion of its prepaid meter upgrade project as a success, the power utility has requested the approximately 1.7 million “zero buyers” to upgrade their meters before the deadline.

“The result of this technology changeover has brought Eskom around 400 000 previous zero buyers to become new paying customers and provided us with a wealth of data to bring further zero buyers into legitimately purchasing electricity,” Eskom Group Chief Executive Dan Marokane said on Wednesday during a media briefing in Cape Town.

Will stop accepting new credit tokens

All prepayment meters have to be upgraded to the Key Revision Number version 2 (KRN 2) as the STS technology for prepayment meters will stop accepting new credit tokens. This is due to the expiry of these vending codes.

This will mean they will stop dispensing electricity after the existing credit is used up, thus making the meter inactive.

“Eskom has successfully completed its prepaid meter Key Revision Number (KRN) rollover project. Starting off with a customer base of 6.91 million prepaid customers, all customers have been converted to KRN 2.

“A data cleaning exercise fully updated the incomplete details of 341 000 customers to bring Eskom’s base to 7.25 million. As of 24 November 2024, approximately 5.5 million customers (which includes the around 400 000 zero buyers, who have become paying customers) have successfully rolled over and are transacting on KRN 2.

“Eskom is currently observing a decrease in the zero buyer numbers to around 1.7 million from the previous 12-month rolling average of 2.1 million. We request these customers to do what is right by Friday, 13 December 2024, by visiting their nearest Eskom sites,” the power utility said.

Eskom said all paying customers who had bought electricity before the deadline and have had their meters made KRN 2 compliant and who are experiencing difficulty will be assisted to complete the process and will not be unfairly penalised.

These customers are advised to use Alfred the chatbot, Eskom Contact Centre: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and WhatsApp.

“For those zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline and were unable to load their meters, they must bring their slips/tokens to the nearest Eskom Hub by Friday 13 December 2024 to be assisted. Customers are urged not to wait for the last day of the extension.

“Zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline but have a meter-related matter such as a lost, bypassed, or tampered meter, must come forward at Eskom centres by Friday 13 December 2024. Their individual situations will be assessed, tamper fines issued if required and meter updates and replacements will then be scheduled,” Eskom said.

‘Complex process’

Those who have come forward but did not buy or attempt to buy electricity tokens by 24 November 2024 are encouraged to purchase electricity tokens before 13 December 2024.

Their meters will be audited, and tamper fines and meter replacement costs will be assessed and issued accordingly.

They can come forward at any time.

“In the past 10 days, we saw zero buyers coming forward in huge numbers wanting to buy electricity and do the right thing. We will continue to treat these users with dignity and respect as we resolve these issues for all of them who did the right thing.

“We acknowledge also that this was a complex process presenting a challenging set of issues and was at times fraught and we continue to monitor and stabilise the system to ensure a smooth customer experience,” Eskom’s Group Executive for Distribution, Monde Bala, said.

Marokane said the power utility was doing everything that is practically possible to make users of electricity pay for it in the interest of those who already pay for electricity, maintain the sustainability of Eskom to drive the economic growth of South Africa and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.