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MEDIA RELEASE: GEORGE MUNICIPALITY IS IN THE PROCESS TO CHANGE PRE-PAID ELECTRICITY TOKEN IDENTIFIERS KNOWN AS TID

Issued by George Municipality on 25 April 2022

The George Municipality is embarking on a pre-paid electricity metering software update for its approximately 49 500 prepaid consumers as the current software will expire in November 2024, not only in George but in the entire Country. Failure to update before the deadline will result in consumers not being able to recharge their meter with the new tokens and therefore will not have power.

Standard Transfer Specification (STS) prepaid meters use encrypted tokens to transfer units purchased onto the meters as per the STS standards and industry guidelines. Each token is encoded with a unique Token Identifier (TID), which has a limited range and will run out (rollover) on 24 November 2024.

After this date, all STS compliant meters will stop accepting credit tokens, unless an intervention takes place.  This implies that all these meters need to receive the TID Rollover Key Change with a new base date before the said date. Failing to act timeously will have a negative impact on consumers as they will be unable to load electricity on the meter.

Households that are in line for the municipal ongoing meter replacement program must be aware that all new meters installed will eventually be updated, but we are working through older stock now. Older stock, even though newly installed, would need to be updated. The new compliant-ready meters are in the municipality stock stores now. Some of the field staff are already updating the meters if they are on-site doing a meter change or site inspection.

As the update unfolds, consumers must ensure that all their old pre-paid electricity tokens must be entered prior to the update being completed, as the old token will not work once the update has been done.

Details about the specific dates of updates in various areas in George will be released in due course. A team conducting the audits from the George Municipality, in conjunction with the teams from the service providers, Alegro and Ontec will be wearing shirts and/or jackets indicating the “Alegro” name as well as ID cards and correspondence confirming and authenticating them being assigned to conduct the audit. Covid-19 health and safety protocols will be adhered to.

Customers may phone the George Municipality on 044 801 9222 or Ontec for verification on 044 873 5474. For more information on the TID Rollover please visit the George Municipality’s website to view frequently asked questions (FAQ): https://www.george.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/TID-ROLLOVER-FAQ-English-Updated-Version-May-2022.pdf

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CAPTION:

A team conducting the audits from the George Municipality, in conjunction with the teams from the service providers, Alegro and Ontec will be wearing shirts and/or jackets indicating the “Alegro” name as well as ID cards and correspondence confirming and authenticating them being assigned to conduct the audit.