FG moves to upgrade prepaid meters for users, assures no loss of units

Through the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), the Federal Government has reassured prepaid meter users that the ongoing meter upgrade will not result in any loss of the units they have already purchased.

NEMSA spokeswoman Ama Umoren, in a statement, said the agency’s Managing Director, Mr. Tukur Tahir, gave the assurance on Sunday.

Tahir responded to inquiries from electricity consumers regarding the upcoming implementation of the standard transfer specification for prepaid meter upgrading using token identifier rollover.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently directed electricity customers nationwide to update their metering devices or face challenges with recharging by 2024.

NERC explained that updating would be free of charge, with customers expected to approach the power distribution companies (DisCos) on how to go about it.

The statement assured customers that the meter upgrade process would not affect the credit unit balance on their meters, adding that the upgrade was a one-time process.

The statement also assured the public of its readiness to ensure that all electricity meters and instruments deployed in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) were of the correct standard.

The agency promised to ensure that all electrical instruments met specifications, safety and quality to accurately measure and record electrical energy consumed and guarantee the security of lives and property.

“Meter manufacturers will be required to change their production processes in order to cater for the new manufacturing hardware secure modules and key load files,” stated NEMSA.

They are also required to start manufacturing meters on the 2014 base date as will be specified by their customers when they have updated their vending systems.”

It also mentioned that distribution companies would provide prepaid meter customers “key change tokens” alongside regular energy tokens when purchasing electricity.

“The prepaid meter end-users would be involved in the final piece of the TID rollover key change process.

The process would involve a special pair of tokens called a key change token that would be entered into the prepaid meter to finalise the update of the prepaid meter software,” Tahir said.

He added, “Customers must upgrade their prepaid meters by sequentially entering the two KCT tokens (KCT1 & KCT2) and then the energy token, to be provided by the DisCo.”

The NEMSA boss urged customers to ensure that “unused or previously purchased energy tokens are loaded into their meters before expiration”.