Kenya Power has upgraded two million pre-paid meters out of the targeted 7.4 million in the campaign launched three weeks ago to ensure the security of generated tokens.
The power utility yesterday expressed optimism that it will net all the targeted prepaid customers by the deadline set for August 31.
“The numbers are encouraging, and we are happy to note that our customers have taken the call to update their meters seriously. We are almost at 30 percent of the targeted meters, and we are optimistic that all our prepaid customers will have updated their meters by the August 31 deadline,” said chief executive Joseph Siror.
Kenya Power says it has adopted a phased approach where the meters are scheduled for an update in batches. Once a meter is selected for the upgrade, a customer receives a text notification and the update codes upon purchasing an electricity token.
“The phased approach has ensured that the prepaid system is not overloaded with customer requests for the update codes. This has minimised challenges such as system delays and made it easier to purchase tokens and access the update codes.
“We encourage all customers to update their meter once they receive the codes,” said Mr Siror.
The upgrade launched mid-last month is part of an ongoing global exercise that targets all prepaid meters that use the Standard Transfer Specification — a universal method to transfer tokens to prepaid meters while ensuring the security of generated tokens.
All prepaid meters that will not have been updated by the deadline will stop accepting the tokens after the close of August.
At the commencement of the exercise, the utility firm had warned customers who had purchased tokens to load them before upgrading their meters, noting that all tokens purchased before the upgrade would be rendered invalid after the exercise.
Prepaid users form the majority of the company’s customers, accounting for about 77.6 percent of the total 9.53 million customers.
Kenya Power has however been seeking to transition all of its customers to prepaid meters as part of efforts to seal revenue leakages as well as cut the cost of deploying meter readers.
