Eskom extends conditional window period for prepaid electricity meter upgrades

By Johnathan Paoli

The country’s prepaid electricity users have been scrambling to upgrade their meter boxes before the midnight deadline to avoid being plunged into darkness.

Despite initial insistence by Eskom and the Energy Ministry that no extensions would be granted, the utility has announced a reprieve for “zero buyers” for those who have consumed electricity without recent purchases, allowing them to update their meters beyond the stipulated cut off.

This last-minute extension follows weeks of confusion, long queues and public outcry over inadequate communication and insufficient resources to address the scale of the required updates.

The update is mandated by the Standard Transfer Specifications Association to address the Token Identifier system embedded in prepaid meters, with the system set to run out of range, rendering meters unable to accept new electricity tokens unless upgraded to Key Revision Number 2.

While Eskom began preparations more than a year ago, the