City of Joburg’s power utility, City Power, has warned non-vending customers that failure to upgrade their electricity prepaid meter before Saturday would result in power supply disconnection and a penalty of up to R14,000.
City Power has extended the deadline for upgrading meters for non-vending customers to November 30, after the original cut-off date passed.
City Power’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena told IOL News that they have experienced a large number of non-vending customers seeking assistance at their Service Delivery Centres (SDCs).
“Our team are consolidating the numbers from the weekend and will capture more in the coming days, as we have seen over the weekend, an influx of previously non-vending customers,” he said.
“To our various Service Delivery Centres (SDCs), especially in Lenasia and Alexandra, seeking assistance with their non-vending meters.”
Mangena said as a result, City Power has extended the grace period for non-payment of penalty fees to Saturday, November 30, to assist customers to re-code their meters.
“Additionally, as of today, Monday 25 November 2024 our metering technicians are on-site assisting customers replacing and installing new pre-meters,” Mangena said.
He said City Power has pre-generated key change tokens for the outstanding non-vending customers, which will enable meter conversions after the original November 24 deadline.
“It is important to note that municipal vending machines will continue to generate key change tokens until May 31, 2025,” Mangena said.
“While the cut-off date for upgrading the metering code is November 24 2024, City Power will still be able to generate the 20-digit tokens needed to convert a meter from KRN1 to KRN2.”
He said the extension allows customers who may have lost their key change tokens or missed the deadline to upgrade their prepaid meters.
Power utility, Eskom, also extended its deadline for non-paying prepaid customers and those who tampered with their meters to upgrade their prepaid electricity meters from KRN1 (Key Revision Number 1) to KRN2.
Mangena told IOL News that customers who fail to upgrade their electricity meters will face serious consequences.
“Unconverted meters will stop accepting electricity unit loads and affected customers will face the possibility of power supply disconnection,” he said.
“The power supply cut off will be followed by a penalty fee to the tune of R14,000 on a single-phase and over R30,000 on a three-phase meter. This penalty will be reinstated from Sunday, December 1, 2024.”
Mangena called on customers to report any fraudulent activities related to prepaid meter upgrades.
“We plead to our customers not to pay any technician, contractor or anyone purporting to be from City Power. Those making demands for cash payments must be immediately reported to our security risk management on 0800 002 587,” Mangena said.
Mangena said all City Powers Service Delivery Centres will open their doors to assist customers with Token Identifier (TID) queries and provide support with prepaid meter upgrade issues.
IOL News