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Illegal connections and dodgy electricity prepaid meters are costing South Africa over R8.5 billion, with five municipalities being the biggest culprits.
Eskom and various municipalities are currently pushing forward with key revision number (KRN) rollover projects, aiming to upgrade all standard transfer specification (STS) electricity prepaid meters by the end of this month.
If the STS prepaid meters are not upgraded by the 24 November deadline, they will stop dispensing electricity.
ALSO READ: How to verify your prepaid electricity meter: Converting from KRN1 to KRN2
Non-compliant meters will be unable to load new electricity credits unless they are updated or reset before the deadline.
The upgrade involves shifting the prepayment meters from the existing KRN1 to the updated KRN2 standard.
The KRN is essentially a unique identifier for a vending key within a supply group, ensuring that meters can accurately track credit usage.
In a recent briefing to Parliament on the progress of the Token Identifier (TID) rollover project, Kevin Naidoo, deputy director-general of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), reminded the committee that only 23 days remain to reset electricity prepaid meters before the deadline.
Naidoo reported that as of 1 November, over 90% of the meters — amounting to 3 695 433 — have been reset, with 8.5% (or 345 075) still outstanding.
He informed Members of Parliament that many of the remaining meters may be non-vending meters, which include bypassed, faulty, tampered, or illegal meters.
“Even if it is not reset, come the 24th of November, that could be continuing to be issuing electricity and it would fall under the category of revenue foregone,” the Cogta official said.
READ MORE: Prepaid electricity meters must still be upgraded by 24 November, says City Power
These non-vending meters are costing municipalities more than R8 billion a year in revenue, according to the South African Local Government Association (Salga).
“If one has to look at the revenue loss that has been put out there, it is figures that have not been confirmed, but it is a figure of R8.6 billion that Salga has assessed as revenue lost or foregone through these meters that have been tampered with.
“It is something that we have agreed as the department [and] Salga that we would like to see how we deal with those issues come post-24 November,” Naidoo explained.
The five municipalities that Salga believes have the highest number of non-vending meters include:
The Department of Cogta has red-flagged three municipalities, including Matlosana in the North West and Thabazimbi in Limpopo, due to delays in their meter conversion progress.
In Matlosana Municipality, around 2,000 meters have been converted so far, but over 20,000 still need to be upgraded.
Additionally, at least 27,300 meters in this area were classified as non-vending meters, and a meter audit will be conducted to address these outstanding units.
Silas Mulaudzi, a sustainable energy specialist at the Salga, indicated that consumers can verify if their meter has been successfully reset.
“Once the consumers of customers enter the key change token, the meter does convert to KRN2,” he said.
Mulaudzi stated that customers can also visit their municipality for assistance in confirming whether their meter has been converted.
He further informed the committee that the cost of the TID project varied depending on each municipality’s implementation approach.
READ MORE: Prepaid electricity token ID rollover deadline extended by six months
“In many municipalities, it has been free because what they have done is that they have used the very same vending service provider to issue key change tokens, where the customer will receive the key change token and reset by themselves.
“Nevertheless, there were some municipalities that decided to procure a service provider to do the complete reset of the meters as well as the meter audit to make sure that they basically clean the entire database. In such cases, yes there were costs, but these were a few municipalities.”
The committee’s chairperson, Zweli Mkhize, noted the progress made by the department, municipalities, and Eskom in their efforts to meet the deadline.
However, the committee expressed concerns about the level of cooperation among some municipalities.
“We understand the urgency of meeting the deadline, but we strongly urge the department to ensure that all municipalities fully cooperate with this process,” he said.
Mkhize stated that the committee was also concerned over the estimated R8 billion in revenue lost due to illegal and tampered prepaid meters because “that’s a huge amount”.
READ MORE: Proposed Eskom tariff increase could sink municipalities – report
“The issue of some of the non-vending meters being linked to illegal dispensing of electricity is a matter of concern.
“We hope that something will be done to identify those and stop that process because that means if the non-vending machines have not been converted; they are continuing to create a risk of losing electricity without anyone paying for it,” the chairperson continued.
Mkhize added that the committee was surprised to hear that there are certain no-go areas where municipalities cannot physically intervene to upgrade the meters.
“We think we need to involve the police. I am aware that there seems to be some work being done there.”
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