Fakoyejo OlalekanThe prepaid meters used by Kaduna and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Companies will stop functioning by November 2024, Prime Business Africa has gathered.
According to findings, the manufacturer of the prepaid meters, Conlog, said users must upgrade the meters before 24 November 2024 to avoid losing them.
Conlog explained in a statement obtained that the current prepaid meters in use in Nigeria and across 50 markets in Africa, the Middle East and South America have a credit token with a TID Identifier that has a reference base date of 1993.
The firm said the reference base date will run out next year, so there’s a need to reset or upgrade the meter to reference a new base date of 2014.
Prime Business Africa gathered that the switch from the 1993 base date to 2014 is known as the TID Rollover Event, which will happen globally.
“What is TID? Each credit token has a unique TID IDENTIFIER (TID) encoded into the 20 digits to prevent token replay at the meter.
“The TID is referenced to a base date of 1993 and will run out of range in 2024 (KNOWN AS THE TID ROLLOVER EVENT), thus causing the payment meter to stop accepting new tokens,” the statement reads.
The next step, according to Conlog, is “The technical remedy is to “RESET” each meter to reference a new base date of 2014 by means of entering two special tokens before 24 November 2024.”
A representative of Kaduna Electric confirmed the necessary upgrade to PBA, stating that “Two sets of key change will be given” to customers that upgrade their meters.
Her confirmation followed a video made by Kaduna Electric Head, Non MD Metering, Umar Gumel, who said the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) meters will have a rollover by November 2024.
Gumel advised customers of Kaduna Electric to start applying for the TID Rollover token by 1 August 2023.
Other users of Conlog, Ikeja Electric, have not begun to inform their customers, as a representative at Ikeja Electric said she’s unaware of the upgrade as at the time of the call.
Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company and Ikeja Electric were yet to respond to email enquiries from Prime Business Africa as of the time of filing this report.
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