DisCos to upgrade customers’ metering before Nov. 2024 – Official

Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Lagos say the proposed Standard Transfer Specification (STS),  a metering code, to be introduced soon, is not targeted toward increasing electricity tarrif.

A top official in one of the DisCos in Lagos, who preferred anonymity, said on Sunday that the code, a software which is of an international standard, is to upgrade old meters to STS rollover.

DisCos in Nigeria have already advised its customers to upgrade their meters before Aug. 1 in order not to lose them.

The STS rollover is a secure message system for carrying information between a point of sale (PoS) and a meter.

The official said that the timeline for the upgrade would end in November 2024 and that customers’ meters had to be upgraded to allowed for accessibility.

According to him, every DisCo has scheduled its metering coding, differently.

“Some have scheduled for Aug. 1, but ours is not same date, However,  it will be done before the expiring date of November 2024.

“We will ensure the migration is seamless for our customers on STS TID rollover system.

“The software will be upgraded without affecting reading or payment model.

“In electricity process, there are intelligent units that transfer the load to an alternative source.

“The technology of the remote communication makes possible the function and recharge of prepaid meter,” the staff added.

The source said that the TID – Token Identifier is a 24 bit field contained in STS compliant token that identifies the date and time of the token generation.

He said that it is used to determine if a token had already been used in a payment meter.

The source said that the upper limit for the software would be reached by November 2024, noting that would lead the rollover to zero.

He also said this would be needed for the TID rollover for meter upgrade to enable meter recharge.

The source said that customers need to upgrade their meters by using a Key Change Token (KCT), a special rest token, to be loaded on their meters.

“Customers will get a KCT of the DisCos offices or their agents at the point of purchase of a token alongside the purchased energy tokens.

“Customers will only need to use KCT once and subsequent energy purchases will be as usual,” the official added.

He said no customers’ meters needed to be changed to enable the upgrade, except it is an obsolete or faulty meter.