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The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) wishes to remind all municipal prepaid electricity customers to update their meters to KRN2 (Key Revision Number 2) before Sunday, 24 November 2024, to avoid losing electricity.

Prepaid meters still on KRN1 will stop accepting new electricity tokens after this deadline. Customers with KRN1 meters will only be able to use their existing electricity credits post-24 November 2024. Once those credits are used up, the meters will reject any new tokens until the meter is successfully converted to KRN2.

Since the Token Identifier (TID) rollover project commenced, SALGA established a live dashboard tracking the progress of KRN2 upgrades. As of Thursday, 21 November 2024, about 266,144 prepaid meters still need to be updated. This number is expected to drop as updates are made towards the deadline.

SALGA Energy Specialist, Dr Silas Mulaudzi, explains: “Many of these meters are likely to be non-vending meters. Municipalities are currently conducting audits to identify and disconnect by-passed meters. These meters are dealt with through revenue protection programmes, not the TID (Token Identifier) rollover process, and are removed from our dashboard as they are resolved.”

Dr Mulaudzi adds: “The awareness campaign continues. We encourage customers who may not have received their key change tokens or those with holiday homes to contact or visit their municipal offices. Ward councillors are assisting elderly residents and people with disabilities. Some municipalities, particularly those with high numbers of outstanding meters, will be open over the weekend to help customers.”

Municipal customers who fail to update their meters to KRN2 will lose the ability to recharge electricity once their current credits run out. Failure to convert the meter after the deadline means customers must visit their respective municipal offices to receive a key change token to upgrade their meter. This is not the ideal situation and should be avoided as it may cause panic and backlog.  SALGA urges municipal customers to act now and do the right thing.

The figures on SALGA’s dashboard only reflect municipal customers, not those directly supplied by Eskom. Municipalities are continuing audits to update the status of non-vending meters. SALGA and municipalities wish to thank customers for their cooperation and urge them to act promptly to avoid service disruptions.

Issued by South African Local Government Association