Eskom is still recoding approximately 300 000 of 6,9 million pre-paid meters before the looming November deadline when the identifiers of each credit token will run out of available numbers.

“We have revised our approach to make it as easy as possible for customers using pre-paid meters to seamlessly do so after November 24. We have decided to allocate our resources to pre-coding the meters via our central systems while still promoting the DIY approach encouraging customers to re-code their meters,” says Monde Bala, Eskom’s Group Executive for Distribution.

Pre-coding is an internal process used by Eskom to prepare the meters for recoding tokens. Without pre-coding, customers will not be able to purchase or load pre-paid electricity tokens. It also avoids the use of illegal tokens from unauthorised vendors.

Customers must use all previously purchased credit tokens from authorised vendors in their meters before entering new meter recoding tokens, Eskom states. “Pre-coding of the meters will not affect the use of old credit tokens until the DIY process is completed. This is important because old credit tokens will not work after the meter is recoded by a customer through the DIY process.”