Got an illegal connection? You may be in the dark from November

6.9 million Eskom customers will need to upgrade their prepaid meters before November, with the utility warning customers who have illegal connections.

The process, which affects all Standard Transfer Specification (STS) compliant pre-payment meters, is necessary to avoid disruption to electricity supply when the Token Identifier (TID) expires on 24 November.

However, customers who have resorted to illegal connections will not be able to recode their meters, leaving them vulnerable to power outages or no electricity at all.

Illegal connections won’t be spared

Speaking to The Citizen, Eskom said the rollover system will make it hard for those with illegal connections to access electricity by using their meters.

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“The challenge will be with customers that have not collected their token at approved Eskom channels and outlets. The meter will also not accept the tokens or vouchers that are bought at illegal vending agents as the meter code would have expired, said Theresa Magubane, Eskom Senior Advisor Media Desk.

Magubane added that customers who opt for illegal connections will not be able to update their meters “as the tokens will be issued when a customer interacts with approved Eskom vending channel or outlet”.

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Key Revision Number

Eskom has been implementing a rollover system to upgrade meters. This was after electricity distributors were told to implement the Key Revision Number system approximately over a decade ago.

According to the utility, this has been under preparation for the last few years.

However, Eskom said it was confident that the project would be successful and completed on time “based on the results of a “soft” roll out”.

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Will power utilities complete the rollover on time?

While Eskom did not provide the precise number of people who have yet to recode their meters, its City of Johannesburg counterpart, City Power, reported that only 13% of its customers had recorded their meters by April.

City Power, which has also been working on the conversion of meters in its areas, admitted to experiencing struggles with only 38 474 of 283 966 registered.

Do it yourself

Eskom has introduced a “Do It Yourself” option for customers, to speed up the conversion.

“Eskom has opted for a “Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach which is the same way that customers are using when loading their electricity tokens, KRN coding is two more additional steps to the electricity token loading,” said Magubane.

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During the DIY process customers are guided on how to obtain and load the required Key Change Tokens in their prepaid electricity meters.

Eskom will provide a pair of key change tokens when a consumer buys their usual top-up prepaid electricity through any of the Eskom-approved vending channels and outlets.

DIY step-by-step

• Key in the first 20 digits of your re-code token and wait for it to be accepted
• Key in the second 20 digits of your re-code token and wait for it to be accepted
• Key in the 20 digits of your purchased token to recharge your meter.

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Scammer alert

According to Eskom, the process of purchasing electricity will remain the same. Customers are still able to buy electricity from preferred or convenient (legal) suppliers such as banks, online platforms, fueling stations etc.

“All customers will be able to purchase electricity from Eskom-approved channels and outlets as the system will be configured by the set date.

“Customers who bought the electricity after the set date will be issued with the token to recode their meters.

“Eskom is encouraging customers to collect their tokens at Eskom-approved vending channels and outlets to recode their meters on time,” said Magubane.

Magubane reiterated that the utility does not charge for the rollover process.

“We want to assure our customers that the recoding of meters is done at no cost to them, and we caution against scammers who may attempt to take advantage of the re-coding process and request payment for this service,” she said.

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