Energy Dept calls on prepaid electricity users to ensure meters updated

JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Energy has called on prepaid electricity users to ensure that their meters have been updated in order to avoid being cut off the circuit.

The department said prepaid meters needed to be updated, as the standard system that provided recharge codes was running out of the unique numbers, and to avoid the reuse of old tokens.

Energy Deputy Minister Samantha Graham-Maré said they were completing the updates and those not updated would stop working.

“Eskom has done 6.6 million of the 6.9 million, so they have about 300,000 left to pre-code and the municipalities have about 4 million to do, so they have about 1 million left.”

Graham-Maré explained how customers can verify if their meters have been upgraded.

“What needs to happen now is that users of the prepaid meters need to go buy their prepaid electricity and they will be provided with a code, a series of digits, they can then input into their meters and that will allow those meters to roll into the new cycle.”