Households and commercial entities using prepaid meters must update them by August 31, or else they will not be able to access electricity.
The update is part of an ongoing global exercise that targets all prepaid meters that use the Standard Transfer Specification (STS)-a universal method to transfer tokens to prepaid meters, while ensuring the security of generated tokens.
The current pre-paid electricity metering software (standard) introduced back in 1993 will expire in November this year, for all prepaid electricity meters.
This has been used in developed countries before Kenya caught up with the prepaid system, where Kenya power started prepaid electricity metering in April 2009.
To date, the utility firm has 7.4 million customers on the token-based meters, where users must purchase tokens from vending points, then input the token code into the meter to recharge their electricity credit.
“All prepaid meters that will not have been updated by the deadline date will stop accepting the tokens after the deadline date. Because of this, we have put in place elaborate measures to ensure that all our customers are fully empowered and assisted in updating their meters to continue to enjoy our services,” Kenya Power managing director and CEO Joseph Siror.
He spoke on Wednesday during the launch of a media campaign dubbed “Update Token Meter Yako”, targeting all its prepaid customers.
The campaign will provide all the necessary information about the exercise to the targeted customers to enable them to update their meters, as soon as they receive the message from Kenya Power prompting them to do so.
“Customers will receive two codes from Kenya Power when they purchase tokens. They will be required to key the codes to their meter following the steps indicated in the SMS before loading the new token. In other instances, the company will send the codes directly to the customers who haven’t purchased tokens to notify them to update their meters. The process is simple and free, ” Siror said.
Kenya Power upgraded its system a fortnight ago but the update will not impact existing tokens that are already loaded into the meter.
However, customers are advised to load any previously purchased tokens before updating their meters as failure to do so will render them invalid, Kenya Power general manager commercial services and sale, Rosemary Oduor, said.
Apart from the media campaign, the company will hold engagements with critical stakeholders and consumer organisations to inform them of the exercise and ensure that all prepaid meters are updated, it said.
Additionally, the company will closely monitor the exercise to identify and address emerging issues.
STS prepaid meters use encrypted tokens to transfer units purchased onto the meters as per the STS standards and industry guidelines. Each token is encoded with a unique Token Identifier (TID), which has a limited range and will run out (rollover) on November 24.
The next rollover of the system is expected to be in about 31 years, putting it at the year 2055.