Everything about prepaid electricity meters in Tshwane

Tshwane residents will not be required to pay any amount to have their meters replaced with prepaid meters.

This was according to Tshwane spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo.

Prepaid meters and electricity tokens have been in the public eye increasingly recently as the metro moves towards the prepaid route.

This has left residents with many questions regarding the meter rollout.

“Residents do not have to pay any money to get their meters fixed. The meters remain the asset of the city and shall be maintained at no cost to the resident,” said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

Mashigo said residents can apply for a prepaid electricity meter at their nearest customer care centre in all metro regions.

He said electricity meters operational in Tshwane are called prepaid meters, however, residents use different terminologies referring to the said meters since the replacement of conventional meters with prepaid meters.

Any challenges experienced with the electricity meters must be reported to the nearest customer care centre or via 012 358 9999.

“Residents can log a call on 012 358 9999 and get a reference number which they will do a follow-up with.”

He said residents need to monitor if their meters are measuring accurate electricity consumption and try to always top up their units before they are depleted.

“Do not tamper with the meters as it is illegal to tamper with critical city infrastructure,” he warned.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT METERS:

What is a prepaid meter?
These meters, also known as prepaid meters, allow users to prepay for electricity in advance, effectively managing their energy usage and reducing their electricity bills.

What are the benefits of a prepaid meter:

– Information on how much electricity you use.
– The ability to decide when to use less and when to use more.
– The ability to pay each month for what you use and nothing more (a prepaid meter eliminates the need to do estimates of meter readings).
– Moreover, you do not have to pay a deposit when a prepaid meter is installed by Tshwane.

What is a smart prepaid meter?

A smart meter is an advanced type of digital electricity meter that records when, and how much, electricity is consumed and deducts from the amount consumed from a prepaid balance loaded by the customer.

– Smart prepayment split metering solution is made up of the meter and the Customer Interface Unit (CIU).

– The meter and CIU communicate with each other remotely enabling the CIU to display exactly what your electricity credit balance is.

– The smart meter allows you to view near real-time electricity usage over time and helps you manage your consumption.

– Smart prepaid meters are capable of two-way communication between the meter and Eskom. This enables Eskom to read information off the meter, detect power outages and meter tampering and send information to the meter such as programming updates.

– Automated instructions are also sent to the meter to interrupt the power supply when your prepaid account balance reaches zero, and to reconnect supply once you have loaded credit.

What are the Benefits of Smart Prepaid Meters?

– Cost saving: Customers will be able to monitor and have control over their consumption and use their electricity more efficiently and sparingly.

– Improved customer service: Queries relating to electricity billing will be eliminated and real-time outage detection will enable Eskom to respond faster to faults in the field.

– Reduced theft and fraud: Smart meters have anti-tampering technology and tamper alarms which are linked to the Eskom system to report malfunctions and detect meter bypassing.

– Proactive customer Notification: SMS and email reminders to notify customers when they are running out of credit and need to top up will be sent.

Information on Tshwane meter reconditioning to ensure that residents do not fall into darkness after November 24 when the key code expires

HOW WILL THE METERS BE CONVERTED FROM STS-1 TO STS-2

– Tshwane Prepaid Vending System will automatically create 2 Key Change tokens and 1 electricity token when the client purchases electricity.

HOW WILL THE TOKEN LOOK:
– The 2 Key Change tokens will look the same as a normal power token and will also contain 20 digits.

HOW TO LOAD THE TOKEN:

– The customer will see that they have now received 3 Tokens.

– Key Change 1, Key Change 2 and the third token will be for the electricity purchased.

– The customer loads Key Change 1 and ensures that the token was successfully loaded. If not successful, the customer must load the token again until successfully loaded on the meter.

– The customer loads Key Change 2 and ensures that the token was successfully loaded. If not successful, the customer must load the token again until successfully loaded on the meter.

– The meter is now converted to STS-2.

– Now the customer can load the third token, which is for the electricity bought.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CAN’T LOAD TOKENS:

– The metro has put together dedicated team members to assist customers.

– They can be contacted on the below contacts, and we will send a team to assist the customer.

– If you do encounter challenges while doing step 2, contact the Tshwane contact centres or tid@tshwane.gov.za

– Alternatively, you can send a WhatsApp on the below numbers.

WhatsApp must contain your metro account number, address and prepaid meter number. WhatsApp numbers only.

– 072 149 8552 for Region 1, 2, 5

– 076 892 7328 for Region 3 & 6

– 063 671 3132 for Region 4 & 7

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