Eskom extends deadline for electricity meter upgrade

The extension however requires customers to buy electricity tokens by Saturday for their meters to be KRN2 compliant.

Eskom extended the deadline to upgrade prepaid meters but customers will be required to buy electricity tokens by Saturday to make their meters key revision number 2 (KRN2) compliant.

Thousands of residents continued to queue outside Eskom sites on Saturday to get assistance in upgrading their prepaid meters in an attempt to meet the initial Sunday deadline.

But the power utility announced it will extend the deadline for zero buyers with active meters, said Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena.

“A technological breakthrough has enabled Eskom to pre-create key change tokens (KCT) on its online vending system. Zero buyers in this situation need to go to their legal vending sites with their meter numbers to buy electricity. They will be issued with their KCT by the vending agents to make their meters KRN2 compliant.”

She said purchasing such tokens should be done before Sunday to trigger the activation of meters in KRN2 mode.

“Once the meter has been activated by the purchase of electricity, the customer can visit any of the Eskom sites to complete the conversion process. The final step can be completed after [Sunday].”

Earlier this week, minister of electricity and energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reiterated that meters using the KRN1 system would no longer accept electricity tokens.

He said more than 2.1-million people had still not migrated to the new system and stood the risk of not having electricity after the deadline.

How to check and record your meter

To verify if your meter is ready:

• Enter 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your meter keypad.
• If it shows 1 or 1.2, your meter still needs to be recoded.
• If it shows 2 or 2.2, your meter is already updated and requires no further action.

 To complete the recoding:

• Enter the first 20 digits of your recode token.
• Enter the second 20 digits of your recode token.
• Finally, enter the 20-digit token from your latest electricity purchase to recharge your meter.

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