The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) has assured electricity consumers using pre-paid meters that units already purchased will not be lost due to the ongoing meter upgrade.
The Head Communication and Protocol Unit, NEMSA, Mrs Ama Umoren, in a statement in Abuja, said the Managing Director of NEMSA, Mr Tukur Tahir, gave the assurance last Sunday.
According to NEMSA, the statement became necessary due to inquiries from electricity consumers over the ongoing discussion on Standard Transfer Specification (STS) of prepaid meters upgrading using Token Identifier (TID) rollover, set to commence soon.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently directed electricity customers across the country to update their metering devices or face challenges with recharging by 2024.
NERC explained that the process of updating would be free of charge with customers expected to approach the power Distribution Companies (Discos) on how to go about it.
The statement assured customers that they had nothing to fear as the meter upgrade process would not affect the credit unit balance on their meters.
It stated that the credit balance would remain intact after the upgrade, adding that the meter upgrade was a one-time process.
The statement said Tahir advised electricity consumers not to panic, stressing that the token Identifier was a 24-bit field, contained in STS.
It assured the public of its readiness to ensure that all electricity meters and instruments deployed in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) were of the right standard.
The statement said the agency would also ensure that all electrical instruments met specifications, safety, and quality, to accurately measure and record electrical energy consumed and guarantee the safety of lives and property.
According to the statement, 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 prepaid meter.
The statement said the process would force the meters to reset the TID stack memory to 0 and change the meter key at the same time.
It noted that the process would not make energy meters faster or slower, adding that “there was no need for consumers to panic as the TID rollover will not alter or change the metrological properties of electricity meters.
The statement also quoted the NEMSA boss as saying that “the prepaid meter end-users would be involved in the final piece of the TID rollover key change process.
“The process would involve a special pair of tokens called a Key Change Token (KCT) that would be entered into the prepaid meter to finalise the update of the prepaid meter software.
“Customers must upgrade their prepaid meters by sequentially entering the two KCT tokens (KCT1 & KCT2) and then the energy token, to be provided by the DISCO.
”Customers must ensure that any unused or previously purchased energy tokens are loaded into their meters before the expiry date.
”Subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual after the upgrade has been completed”.
