Countdown to 2024
A very big change is coming, and it will affect all of Eskom’s prepaid customers’ meters on 24 November 2024.
A new series of electricity vending codes will be introduced to all meters in South Africa. This will ensure that the meter’s key change code does not expire. Eskom is informing its prepaid customers that the lifespan of the current vending codes of meters will be expiring on this date. If you are an Eskom prepaid customer, you will need to take action to ensure that your meter keeps working and that you will still be able to top up your meter when you purchase your meter tokens.
Why is this happening?
All prepayment meters based on STS technology will stop accepting new credit tokens because of 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. Each credit token has a unique token identifier (TID) encoded in the 20 digits to prevent token replay at the meter. The TID is referenced to a base date of 1993 and will run out of range in 2024 (known as the TID rollover event), thus causing the prepayment meter to stop accepting new tokens.
If your meter has not been recoded, it will not accept the tokens you have purchased, which means it will stop working. All prepaid meters must be recoded, whether you are an Eskom customer or a municipally supplied customer.
What do you need to do?
This programme is a customer DIY rollover. As a prepaid meter user, you will be guided on how to recode your own meter. It is very easy. Just follow three steps, and you are done!
Get your two key change tokens from your local or online vendor when Eskom prompts you that your area is active follow these steps
Video below demonstrates how to key-in your tokens
After keying in your recode tokens, proceed to key in any other tokens you may have received e.g. free basic electricity tokens.
Areas that are active in the roll-out
Various sections of Eskom’s customer base will become active at different timeslots/periods to allow Eskom to assist customers if needed. Please keep a close eye on communications from Eskom and your local media to find out when your area is ready for you to do your recoding.
Important! Your electricity tokens bought in advance will not work after your meter has been recoded.
Pre-purchased tokens will not work after you have recoded your meter. All tokens purchased before your meter is recoded must be loaded into the meter before recoding is done. Once the meter is recoded, the meter will reject old electricity tokens.
Where to get your key change tokens
When purchasing an electricity token, customers will also receive two 20-digit numbers. These tokens are made available when buying a recharge token and are accessible to all customers once the key change system goes live in their area.
Key change tokens are dispensed automatically from the vendors where you buy your electricity.
Alfred can now help you with your KRN rollover.
You can use Alfred to log your KRN token information, Alfred will route your request to the KRN team and will give you feedback right away. No need to call the contact centre for KRN, use Alfred chat bot for quick immediate service instead. You can simply go to https://alfred.eskom.co.za/chatroom/
Your security is our priority
This is a DIY initiative. Eskom will not send a contractor to customers’ homes. Do not let anyone into your home under the pretext that they want to help you recode your meter. No matter how convincing they may be, if you have not been told by a local media campaign, Eskom, or your local councillor to let someone in, you should not let anyone in. Criminals take advantage of these campaigns to gain access to community members’ homes to commit crimes. Call the Eskom ShareCall number 08600 37566 if you are not sure of the identity of a person requiring access to your home.
Is there a charge by Eskom to recode your meter?
No, there is no charge for this recoding, and you should report it to Eskom if anyone wants to charge you to recode your meter. No Eskom staff member or supplier will come to your home to charge you for the recoding. Please report any such event to the South African Police or Eskom at 08600 37566. For more information on the worldwide key change rollover, go to www.tidrollover.com.
The Key Revision Number (KRN) or the Token Identifier (TID) Rollover Programme is a prepaid electricity metering industry undertaking to ensure that all prepaid meters that will roll over to a new Token Identifier Code on 24 November 2024 are correctly re-coded.
Each token is encoded with a unique Token Identifier (TID), which has a limited range and will run out (rollover) on 24 November 2024. After this date, all STS-compliant meters will stop accepting credit tokens, unless an intervention takes place, which means that all these meters need to receive the TID Rollover Key Change with the new base date before this date.
If you don’t recode, when you buy electricity after November 2024, your meter will NOT load your purchased tokens. Every meter in South African HAS to be recoded.
If the meter codes are not updated, the prepaid tokens bought will not work on those meters, leaving you without electricity. The meter coding project is being done for technical reasons to ensure that all Eskom prepaid meters continue working.
It is like upgrading your cellphone – you can use most cellphones for a long time, but sometimes they stop working correctly so you need to upgrade your phone’s software.
Eskom has successfully completed a pilot project in Riverside View in Gauteng. 5000 meters were recoded and rolled over to KRN2. Eskom is preparing to kick off its prepaid meter recode initiative to all its customers around the country. It is envisaged that Eskom will start within the next month or two.
The prepaid meters are not being changes, they will work exactly the same as they work now, they are just being recoded. The only change coming in now is if the meter is not recoded, it will not accept the tokens purchased after 24 Nov 2024. All prepaid meters in South Africa that comply to the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) must be recoded.
Yes, this project is only to recode prepaid meters, to ensure they remain working after 24 November 2024.
All STS prepayment meters will be affected by the TID rollover on 24 November 2024. Any tokens generated after this date and utilising the 24-bit TID will be rejected by the meters as being old tokens as the TID value embedded in the token will have reset back to 0.
There are about 6.6 million prepaid meters in the Eskom supply areas, across South Africa.
Eskom will communicate the KRN rollover through a comprehensive education campaign to customers. Eskom will use regional radio live reads, community print and radio media release, radio interviews, leaflets, posters, Facebook and Twitter posts, You Tube videos, community forums and customer communiques.
The recoding of prepaid meters is not an Eskom-only project the recoding of prepaid meters needs to be done for all Eskom prepayment supply customers, also those of the South African municipalities as well as customers using STS-type prepaid meters in various other countries. The software of all prepaid meters in South Africa must be recoded, no matter who supplies your electricity. Municipalities and prepaid electricity vendors are running similar projects.
Eskom will start in designated areas and inform the customers in that area when the project will start and how it will work. This is a customer Do It Yourself (DIY) process to recode your prepaid meter. Eskom will provide you with easy, step-by-step instructions that will enable you to recode your meter yourself.
Eskom will brief its approved vending agents so that their systems are enabled to remind you to do the recoding yourself.
When the recoding starts in your area you will receive two key change tokens with your normal credit token. You will be guided to punch in the numbers of the key change tokens into your meter in a specific order, to re-code your meter. You will then be able to load your meter with credit with your credit token, or you may load any other tokens e.g. free basic electricity tokens thereafter.
There is NO cost to recoding your meter. You will NOT be required to pay for this recoding change. Should anyone ask you to pay for this service, immediately report that to the SAPS or Eskom (08600 37566
No, there are no contractors or installers in this rollover. The recoding is done by customers themselves. No Eskom person will be visiting you to assist you with this, except for normal reported technical queries. Do not let anyone into your home posing as an Eskom person wanting to recode your meter.
Credit in the meter at the time of recoding will be unaffected, even if the recoding is done.
- Eskom will alert customers in the rollout areas two weeks before the rollout commences with messaging in local media and community communication channels.
- Following that, the prepaid vendors will issue the two 20-digit key change tokens together with your normal electricity tokens.
- All meters must be recoded in South Africa to ensure that all customers can load electricity tokens. After November 2024 only recoded meters will accept the prepaid electricity top-up tokens.
The banks and other online vending services are not yet able to issue the recode change tokens, but they are working on updating their systems to supply these in future. For the interim, Eskom advises customers to buy from their local prepaid vending agents when they want to get their recode tokens.
You will be able to get another set of 2 x 20 digit tokens from your vendor, should you have lost the ones issued to you.