The federal government said the electricity meter upgrade process to be implemented by power distribution companies would not affect the credit unit balance in the meters.
Recall that electricity distribution companies in the country had urged consumers to upgrade their prepaid meters in order to make them compliant with new processes.
It stated that starting from August 1, 2023, the prepaid meters will no longer accept old tokens.
The DisCos said from that time, purchased tokens will consist of three tokens – KCT1 – Upgrade Token, KCT2 – Upgrade Token, ET3 – Electricity Token – with the first two being key change tokens or upgrade tokens.
The first two tokens are the Key Change Tokens (KCT1 & KCT2), and the third token is the consumer’s purchased electricity token, which will grant the value of units purchased.
The managing director of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), Mr Aliyu Tahir, said in a statement in Abuja that the agency would ensure that all electricity meters and instruments deployed in the sector were of the right standard.
“Let me assure all electricity customers that they have nothing to fear as the meter upgrade process will not affect the credit unit balance on their meters. The credit balance will remain intact after the upgrade.
“They are also to note that meter upgrade is a one-time process. Subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual after the upgrade has been completed,” he said.
Tahir who was reacting to the issue of standard transfer specification for the upgrade of prepaid meters by means of token identifier rollover said to overcome the rollover occurrence, all meters would require key change tokens with the rollover bit set, which would be provided by the Discos.
He said when the key change tokens are imputed, the process would force the meters to reset the TID stack memory to zero and change the meter key at the same time.
“This process will not make energy meters faster or slower, hence, there is no need for panic and that the TID rollover will not alter or change the metrological properties of electricity meters that have been certified by NEMSA, to accurately measure and record electrical energy consumed.
“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.
“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.
“Also, the distribution companies will provide their prepaid meter customers Key Change Tokens alongside their regular energy tokens when purchasing electricity,” he added
