​Thembisa Shologu
City Power has extended its deadline for all its prepaid electricity customers who had missed the Token Identifier (TID) rollover deadline to convert their meters as required by the Standard Transfer Specification Association (STSA) from Key Revision Number KRN 1 to KRN 2. 
The initial 24 November set deadline to recode meters has since been extended to 30 November 2024. 
If the meter codes are not updated, the prepaid tokens bought will not work, leaving customers without electricity.  
The meter recoding project is being done for technical reasons to ensure that all prepaid meters continue working.
City Power's Isaac Mangena said: "City Power would like to inform customers who have not yet converted their meters not to panic and to be assured that we will attend to each one of them.
"We have decided to extend the grace period for nonpayment of penalty fee to the 30 November 2024, we will continue to assist our customers to recode their meters beyond the 24 November 2024."
"We urge the customers not to panic and rush to our offices as our teams will still be on the ground from Monday 25 November 2024 to ensure that they assist customers to recode and also convert their meters." 
To check if meters have been upgraded to KRN2, customers can enter code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on their meter keypads.
The meter screen will display either the number 1 or 2, if it shows 1 it indicates that your meter is still on KRN1 and requires an upgrade to KRN2.  
"It is important to note that municipal vending machines will be able to generate key change tokens until 31 May 2025 although the cut-off date for the upgrading of meters recoding is November 2024. 
"City Power will still be able to generate the 20 number digit token that is used to basically convert the meter from KRM 1 to KRM 2," said Mangena. 
He said the power utility had deployed their teams to be in queues with the customers to collect all their information and arrange for the technicians to visit those customers, especially the elderly. 
He said the extension also covers those who may have previously received the key change tokens and lost them before loading the token. 
"It is important to note that the unconverted meters will seize loading the electricity units but due to this extension those customers can still visit our service delivery centres from Monday, 25 November and the new key change tokens will be provided to enable the process of the upgrading to be complete.
"For those who are still at home especially the elderly and even the sick there's no need to rush to the service delivery centres you can please make use of our telephone lines and call in to ensure that you get the service that is needed you can also call in our free number which is  0800 202-9251 or visit our service centre which will remain open from Monday throughout the week who will be able to assist to take your details and ensure that the technicians are dispatched to your homes," he advised.