City Power on big drive to upgrade SMART meters

The City of Johannesburg is launching drives to upgrade the current prepaid electricity voucher systems across the metro this year, to avoid customers from sitting without electricity.

PREPAID METER VOUCHER SYSTEM WILL RUN OUT OF SEQUENCES

The city says the current prepaid electricity voucher system will run out of voucher sequences for the unique tokens produced for each meter by 24 November 24.

ALSO READ: The City of Tshwane pleads with residents to use water sparingly

CITY POWER WILL UPGRADE OR REPLACE OLD METERS

To resolve this system issue, City Power will embark on a programme to upgrade Smart meters or replace older ones.

“This is a system-linked limitation and not unexpected. We certainly do not want to scramble at the last minute and want to ensure that prepaid electricity customers continue to receive services when the new system kicks in towards the end of 2024,” says MMC Michael Sun.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Cape Town businessman assaults wife and child [GRAPHIC]

The current Standard Transfer Specification (STS) system has been in place since 1993 and will stop dispensing voucher sequences on 24 November 2024.

The STS provides the facility of generating tokens that the intended prepaid voucher system can use only once. You can also only use credit tokens once in that meter.

ALSO READ: Murder accused who robbed and stabbed a learner to death for his cellphone

​“When the time comes, the electricity prepaid meters will stop accepting new credit tokens and dispensing electricity after the existing credits.”

Michael Sun

Any tokens generated after this date and using the 24- digit number will be rejected by the meters as old tokens.

“I urge customers with the affected prepaid meters systems in Johannesburg to cooperate with the City Power officials when they arrive on your premises to upgrade or replace your meters.”

Michael Sun

ALSO READ: Gauteng police recovers 60 firearms

Always ask City Power technicians to show you their appointment cards.

Here is how to identify a City Power official:

• Name of the official.
• The ID number of the official.
• The department where the official is from.
• An expiry date is on a colour coded strip.
• Blue – permanent employees.
• Green – Meter readers.
• Purple – Contractors.
• Red – Cut off teams.
• Black – Interns/ temporary staff.
• On the back of the card is a hologram of City Power’s Firefly logo and the contact numbers for the Risk Team should you want to verify the staff member’s ID number.

If you are still unsure, please call 011 490 7900/7911/7553 for assistance.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES BY VIRGINIA KEPPLER-YOUNG