Prepaid Meter Upgrade
The meter upgrade requires that existing meters need to be upgraded to a new specification by November 2024 so that they can continue to accept meter tokens.
STS stands for Standard Transfer Specification. It is a standard protocol for the transfer of credit from the point of sale to the energy meter. It was created as an industry standard for prepaid metering and vending.
TID is the Token Identifier. It is a 24-bit field, contained in STS-compliant tokens, that identifies the date and time when the token was generated. It is used to determine if a token has already been used in a prepayment meter. The TID represents the number of minutes elapsed since the base date of 1 January 1993.
The incrementing of the 24-bit field means that at some point in time, the TID value will roll over to a zero value. Notably, the TID has a limited range and will run out in November 2024, at which point all existing prepayment meters that are STS non-compliance will stop accepting credit tokens.
In order to circumvent this issue, the memory of each meter needs to be cleared of all stored TIDs and its cryptographic key needs to be changed before 2024.
With technology constantly changing and upgrading, the STS system had to include positive changes to ensure that the system continues to operate the way it has since its inception. Also, with the concerns and challenges that the market faces in terms of ghost vending the illegal practice of selling prepaid electricity results in a loss of revenue and contributes significantly to nontechnical losses at utilities – a solution.
Visit any of our vending offices to purchase a token. You will be given two Key Change Tokens (KCTI & KCT2) and the token you purchased. Load the two KCT tokens followed by the energy token. The upgrade is automatically done.
The tokens will be available from August 1, 2023.
Single Phase – 88,123.77
Three Phase – 154,622.73
VAT Inclusive
Some of the benefits of this process are:
Significantly stronger algorithms for vending key creation and protection. The new system will use up to 192-bit encryption and state-of-the-art algorithms.
Key expiration, which will allow for a vending key to expire after a certain time. This ensures that even if a vending key has been compromised, the key will expire after a stipulated time frame, significantly reducing the risks when a vending system or security module is stolen.
The longevity of the STS system is guaranteed.
All meters that have used tokens purchased from unauthorized vendors will no longer be able to purchase from those vendors.
It will prevent unauthorized vending channels from accessing and or tampering with the system, thereby injecting more sanity and transparency into the system.
List of approved MAP Vendors