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IMPORTANT PREPAID METER SOFTWARE UPDATE (TID Rollover) – Phase 2 are receiving a Token to amend software, 15 September 2023

The George Municipality embarked on a pre-paid electricity metering software update for its approximately 50 000 prepaid consumers quite a while back. The current software on all pre-paid meters in South Africa will expire in November 2024. If your meter is not updated before the deadline, you will not be able to recharge your prepaid meter with the new tokens and therefore will not have power.

85% of George Software Updates Completed
George Municipality has already successfully implemented the software update on close to 85% of its prepaid meter base. This has been addressed through the work done by field staff and contractors on-site while doing a meter change, site inspection, and Amp limit roll-out. These teams will continue to go out weekly to do site inspections and Amp limit roll-out. George is considerably further along with this process than many other municipalities.

Key change tokens
To expedite the software update (TID roll-over) and in order to ensure no consumer is placed at risk of having a non-working meter, the municipality will continue to implement the key change process, with the issue of a separate, extra token when you make your next purchase.

Key Change Token Process
If your prepaid meter software has already been updated during Phase 1, you will NOT receive an extra token. If you do receive a KEY CHANGE Token with your next purchase the following is VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE BEFORE you insert the key change:
1. IMPORTANT – DON’T FORGET TO INSERT ALL old or unused tokens BEFORE you enter the KEY CHANGE token and ONLY then INSERT the newly bought token,
2. The meter will NOT accept your old or unused tokens, once you enter the key change token and no reimbursement can be made on these tokens.
3. The meter will not accept your newly bought token, until the key change token has been inserted.

Verification or Queries – If you receive an extra token and you are unsure what to do?
Customers may phone the George Municipality on 044 801 9222 or Ontec on 044 873 5474 for verification, for response to queries OR to request that their software is addressed. Please note that all municipal and/or Ontec officials carry identification cards with a photograph and their ID number as well as a copy of a verification letter explaining the purpose for their visit.

TOKEN IDENTIFIER (TID) ROLLOVER SOURCE : https://www.sts.org.za/tid-rollover
The Token Identifier is a 24-bit field, contained in STS compliant tokens, that identifies the date and time of the token generation. It is used to determine if a token has already been used in a payment meter. The TID represents the minutes elapsed since the 1st of January 1993. The incrementing of the 24-bit field means that at some point in time, the TID value will roll over to a zero value. All STS prepayment meters will be affected by TID roll over on the 24/11/2024. Any tokens generated after this date and utilizing the 24bit TID will be rejected by the meters as being old tokens as the TID value embedded in the token will have reset back to 0.