State-owned utility Eskom reports in a statement that it has achieved a significant milestone in its key revision number, or KRN, rollover project, having successfully recoded three-million prepaid meters as of March 1.

As previously communicated by the entity, Eskom and all electricity distributors in South Africa have the responsibility to recode prepaid electricity meters.

The majority of the country’s prepaid meter token identifier codes are set to expire on November 24. After this date, all standard transfer specification- (STS-) compliant meters will no longer accept credit tokens.

“Reaching this milestone of recoding three-million key change tokens gives impetus to our commitment to ensure all our 6.8-million prepaid electricity meters are recoded before the deadline of November 24.

“We are grateful to our customers for embracing the do-it-yourself process. Our teams are available to promptly assist those customers who are experiencing challenges and have logged queries with reference numbers,” says Eskom Distribution group executive Monde Bala.

Eskom says it continues to centrally monitor the progress of the rollover, daily, through a dashboard, and that it provides support through various customer support mechanisms.

It avers that easy step-by-step guides are available on the various Eskom communication channels, including social media platforms, the Alfred Chatbot for questions and answers, and the Eskom website.

Eskom has also reiterated that the recoding of meters is done at no cost to the customers and has cautioned against scammers who may attempt to take advantage of the re-coding process and request any form of payment for this service.

Customers have also been reminded to enter all previously purchased credit tokens into their meter before entering their new meter recoding tokens.

This is important because old credit tokens will not work after the meter is recoded, Eskom emphasises.

If customers have bought multiple credit tokens as part of the meter recoding or afterwards, they must enter these tokens in the same date or time order they were bought.

Otherwise, older tokens may no longer work in the meter if newer tokens are inserted first, the entity points out.

It adds that the process of buying electricity remains unchanged.

Customers can still buy electricity from major banks, online platforms, fuel stations, prepaid electricity vending agents, and retailers across the country, as they currently do, Eskom explains.

Customers have also been urged to recode their meters, as all STS-compliant meters will stop accepting credit tokens after November 24.

To recode their meters, customers would have to get their two recode tokens from their prepaid electricity vendor when Eskom prompts that their area is being rolled over. They would then have to key in the first 20 digits of their recode token, and wait for it to be accepted. This would be followed by keying in the second 20 digits of their recode token, and waiting for it to be accepted.

Importantly, they must key in the 20 digits of their bought token to recharge their meter.