Apparently all pre paid electricity meters in South Africa have to be updated with a new 20 pin code which allows them to operate on the new system. There is a built in timer security mechanism in all (STS) meters known as Standard Transfer Specification meters with the token identifier being out of range or expired om the 24th being this Sunday. This is world wide and not just for South Africa.
The problem is over 2.6 million households out of 11 million are still waiting for their 20 digit pin which the chances are this will not happen. They say you can do this manually, but many say they have tried and it does not work.
Eskom the electricity SOE has had 10 years to get this done and started with the crossover update in August 2023. In May this year they announced they had achieved 50% which is 10 months. It does not take a genius to tell you that at the same rate you will run out of time which is now this Sunday.
Everyone is asking what happens after Sunday as there is going to be plenty of people with no power. There just isn't enough time left and again it highlights how inefficient any project the government touches and why they fail. What it looks like is the can was kicked down the road for all these years and suddenly there is panic not leaving them enough time to complete this. With this issue there is nowhere to hide and no one to blame, but themselves.
A good example is our pre paid meter system which we have tried in vain to be connected and compliant. When we switched over a team came in and fitted half the pre paid system. We were the told another team would finish the job, but they were very busy so we must be patient. Months ticked past and eventually had an electrician on my cost come check out what was missing.
There is nothing he can do as we are compliant on our side as all seals are intact. I again contacted the power service provider and had no feed back. Our pre paid meter is not even registered ad why I have no faith in the system.
Next week Monday our solar installation starts so weather permitting as it is the afternoon thunder storm season we should have this completed by Thursday. With so much incompetence one can see how corruption can thrive as all it needs is a little chaos.
I suspect once these pre paid meters are all working on the same system we will see total control of electricity consumption. The blackouts/load shedding we know will now be controlled through your meter starting with no geyser/boiler which they can select. This is like giving an official a new toy and they will be using this non stop.