Following the directive by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) directing all electricity customers nationwide to update their metering devices before the year runs out or faces challenges with recharging by next year 2024. The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA, has assured electricity consumers that they have nothing to fear as their already purchased unit will not be affected in any way while their meters are upgraded.
NEMSA Managing Director, Tukur Tahir made the clarification yesterday in a statement through the agency’s head of communication and Protocol Unit, Ama Umoren.
Tahir was reacting to enquiries coming 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.
To doused the narratives being peddled surrounding the upgrade, NEMSA has assured customers that they had nothing to fear as the meter upgrade process would not affect the credit unit balance on their meters.
The agency assured that all units already uploaded will have no effect while effecting the upgrade as all balance unit will remain intact, the agency revealed.
The statement partly reads; “The TID represents the number of minutes elapsed since the base date of 1st January 1993. The incrementing of the 24-bit field means that at some point, the TID value will roll over to a zero value.
“In order to overcome the TID rollover occurrence, all meters will require key change tokens with the rollover bit set, which will be provided by the utility companies when the key change tokens are credited.
“There was no need for consumers to panic as the TID rollover will not alter or change the metrological properties of electricity meters.
“That has been certified by NEMSA to accurately measure and record electrical energy consumed.
It went further to explain that, “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 unused or previously purchased energy tokens are loaded into their meters before expiry.
“Subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual after the upgrade has been completed,” he said.
