100 days till lights out in South Africa

Government has cautioned residents that failure to update prepaid electricity meters could mean lights out in South Africa. Here’s the deadline …

Today (Sunday 18 August 2024) marks 100 days till lights out in South Africa if millions of prepaid electricity meters are not updated. Similar to concerns over Y2K at the turn of the century, if prepaid meters are not updated with the correct software, they will cease to function on Sunday 24 November 2024, reports Business Tech.

Earlier this month, The South African reported that municipalities have known about the lights-out warning for two years now. Prepaid electricity meters require a special code from the local municipality to ensure no lights out in South Africa. Either the user or a local representative can punch this code in, just like you would any other electricity voucher.

LIGHTS OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Many worried residents have contacted us about what to do. Continue to read on below … Image: File

Eskom and local municipalities say they’ve been rolling out the update process, but time is running out. Moreover, the Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau has come out in the media, trying to spurn tardy municipalities into action. He believes failing to update the system won’t just inconvenience the few who won’t be able to purchase electricity. He says failure on a large enough scale will knock the lights out in South Africa and potentially risk a ‘full system shutdown’, reports The Citizen.

Furthermore, the sequence of token identity numbers that unlock prepaid electricity on your machine, only have a certain lifespan. And this lifespan runs out on Sunday 24 November 2024 (24/11/24). Meter’s therefore need a ‘reset’ code, which must be entered into the prepaid meter like a normal recharge code.

HOW FAR ALONG IS THE PROCESS IN SOUTH AFRICA?

2.9-million Eskom machines still need to be updated. Image: File

Unsurprisingly, the DA-run Western Cape is streaks ahead of the rest of the country to stave off lights out in South Africa, according to SALGA:

• Currently the Western Cape sits at 96% updated.

• The national average is 75%.

• There are roughly 12-million prepaid meters in South Africa.

• Of the 6.9-million STS-complaint prepaid meters run by Eskom, only 4 million have been updated with new software.

• The leaves 2.9 million Eskom customers still to switch over.

• 4.6 million are managed by municipal customers (not Eskom).

BUSY 100 DAYS AHEAD

The 24 November 2024 doesn’t only affect South Africa but other countries all over the world. Image: File

To put those figures into perspective, roughly 30 000 prepaid meters per day need to be completed to beat the 100-day deadline. That’s 500 every hour! You should contact your local municipality urgently for your codes if you have not already done so.

• You will need to enter in one of two 20-digit recode tokens and wait for it to be accepted.

• Then there is a second set of 20 digits to enter. Wait for it to be accepted, too.

• Finally, purchase and load a top-up prepaid electricity token to see if it’s worked.