Drakenstein municipality, covering Paarl, Wellington, Mbekweni, Gouda, Saron, Hermon and Simondium, in the Western Cape, has completed the formal auditing process of prepaid electricity meters of municipal customers in Drakenstein.
There are now only a few meters outstanding in the area which the municipality says it has soft-locked as its meter auditors could not access these homes. Most of these homeowners live abroad and the municipality will assist them when they return to the country.
As part of the auditing process, the prepaid meters were reset, meaning that these municipal customers will be able to buy electricity without any hassles after November, the municipality says.
Resetting was necessary because, by November this year, the encryption key numbers in prepaid electricity meters are set to expire.
Failure to reset these key numbers before the November deadline would have resulted in customers not being able to buy electricity, it adds.
“The municipality wants to thank the community of Drakenstein for assisting us by granting our meter auditors access to their residences or businesses to inspect the effectiveness of their prepaid meters, and to reset them,” says Drakenstein executive mayor Stephen Korabie.
The municipality says, however, that the above information does not apply to prepaid meters of direct Eskom customers residing in areas such as Saron, Gouda and Hermon, as Eskom is responsible for resetting those.