According to the Nigerian power Management Services Agency, NEMSA, units already purchased by power customers utilising prepaid metres won’t be lost as a result of the ongoing metre upgrading.
This was revealed on Sunday by the managing director of NEMSA, Mr. Tukur Tahir, in a statement made by Ama Umoren, head of the agency’s communication and protocol unit.
By 2024, all energy users in Nigeria must update their metering equipment, according to OBASANJO NEWS24, otherwise they risk having trouble recharging their devices.
Tahir is responding to inquiries from power users regarding the ongoing Standard Transfer Specification (STS) discussion of upgrading prepaid metres using Token Identifier (TID) rollover, which is about to start.
Customers were reassured by NEMSA that they had nothing to worry about because the metre upgrade process would not have an impact on their credit unit balance.
It added that the metre upgrade was a one-time procedure and guaranteed that the credit amount would be preserved after the upgrading.
“The TID shows how many minutes have passed since the base date of January 1, 1993. The 24-bit field is incremented, therefore eventually the TID value will roll over to a zero value.
“All metres will need key change tokens with the rollover bit set, which will be delivered by the utility companies when the key change tokens are credited, in order to prevent TID rollover occurrence.
“Consumers didn’t need to fret because the TID rollover won’t affect or change the metrological characteristics of electricity metres.
“That has received NEMSA certification to precisely measure and record electrical energy used.
Customers must upgrade their prepaid metres by progressively inserting the energy token (which the DISCO will supply) after the two KCT tokens (KCT1 & KCT2).
“Customers are responsible for loading unused or previously acquired energy tokens into their metres before to expiration.
After the upgrade is finished, “subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual,” he declared.
