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The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has warned its customers that if they do not upgrade their electricity prepaid meters, the gadgets will cease from functioning later this year.
The current generation of prepaid meters uses software with a built-in date limit of 24 November 2024.
After that date, the meters will no longer recognise new tokens, effectively cutting off electricity to homes and businesses they are installed on.
ZETDC acting public relations officer Alaina Suliwa said,
“ZETDC embarked on the prepaid meter upgrade exercise on November 17, 2023, starting with a pilot of a few selected areas across all regions”
The pilot project covered areas under the North district (Harare Region); Mutare district (Eastern Region); Bulawayo East district (Western Region); Gweru district (Southern Region); and Kadoma and Chinhoyi districts (Northern Region).
In total, 85 per cent of the installed meters in these areas were successfully upgraded.
The remaining 15 per cent are non-TID (token identifier)—compliant meters that the utility will change at no cost to the client.
TID is the system used by prepaid meters to determine the authenticity of a recharge token.
The exercise, Suliwa said, was then rolled out to the rest of the country on 18 December. She said:
The upgrade is done as part of compliance with the requirements by the STS (Standard Transfer Specification) system for prepaid meters, which states that all power utilities using this system the world over have to do the upgrades by November 24, 2024, to enable their meters to continue accepting tokens.
Any prepaid meter that is not upgraded by this date will not accept tokens. Hence, upgrading ensures uninterrupted recharging service to our valued customers and also comes with enhanced security features for the meter.
Meanwhile, on Friday, ZETDC’s prepaid electricity vending purchase system was temporarily unavailable from all third-party platforms due to a technical fault.
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