Federal Government Assures Customers That Electricity Meter Upgrade Will Not Affect Credit Balance

The Federal Government has assured electricity customers that the meter upgrade process to be implemented by power distribution companies will not affect the credit units balance in their meters.

The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency made the assurance in a statement issued on Sunday.

NEMSA said the upgrade is a one-time process and that subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual after the upgrade.

“Let me assure all electricity customers that they have nothing to fear as the meter upgrade process will not affect the credit unit balance on their meters. The credit balance will remain intact after the upgrade”. the Managing Director, NEMSA, Aliyu Tahir, assured

“They are also to note that meter upgrade is a one-time process. Subsequent energy token purchases will continue as usual after the upgrade has been completed,”  he said

The agency explained that the upgrade is necessary to overcome the Token Identifier (TID) rollover occurrence, which is a condition that occurs when the TID stack memory in a meter reaches its maximum capacity.

To overcome this, all meters will require key change tokens with the rollover bit set, which the DisCos will provide.

When the key change tokens are imputed, the process will force the meters to reset the TID stack memory to zero and change the meter key simultaneously.

NEMSA said the upgrade will not make energy meters faster or slower and will not alter or change the metrological properties of electricity meters that have been certified by the agency.

The agency urged electricity customers to cooperate with the DisCos during the upgrade process and to contact their respective DisCos for more information.