TID rollover | What is it all about?

18 September | Terence Drake

You may have seen articles in the press and social media around the need to ‘upgrade’ prepaid meters by November 2024, or perhaps you’ve heard discussion around the Token Identifier (or TID) rollover.

Believe it or not, but the TID rollover is more real than Y2K!

But what is this, and what does it mean?

TID is a unique token identifier that is coded into the prepaid token that you purchase from any vending point or outlet. The current token identifier is calculated as the number of minutes that have elapsed since the base date of 1993.

The TID has a limited range of 31,9 years, which means that, in November 2024, the TID will reset (rollover) to zero. Any new tokens after this date will not be accepted by the meter as the meter will consider these as being “OLD”.

So why then was the TID not designed to last longer than 31.9 years?

While this is theoretically possible, it would mean that the token string would need to be a lot longer than the existing 20 digits – which makes it impractical for consumers having to enter the token onto a keypad.

A new base date of 2014 has been introduced and is associated with a new vending key revision with increased cryptographic strength that will be good for use up to 2045.

So, what needs to be done? 

The solution is to clear the meter’s memory of previously accepted TIDs and to change the meter’s cryptographic key at the same time in order to prevent token reuse.

All Standard Transfer Specification (STS) Prepaid Vending Systems need to be upgraded to become STS Edition 2 compliant.

Ok but what is the real risk?

Unless the prepaid meter AND the vending system are upgraded before November 2024, the prepaid meter will not be able to accept any new tokens, making it effectively useless.

What are we at Power Measurement & Distribution doing about this?

• As member, or affiliate member of most major industry associations, such as NAMA, ERASA, AMEU, SARPA, we have been engaging with fellow industry members, as well as the STS Association on this matter.

• Our vending system has been upgraded to STS Edition 2.

• We have established a dedicated call centre to deal with the large influx of calls from consumers.

• We have hired additional technical and administrative staff to ensure that this project is managed smoothly.

• To date we have already upgraded approximately 70% of our installed meter base, and we plan to finalise the production and implementation of all our TID tokens by the end of 2023.

• We continuously run sample tests on meters to confirm compliance.

• All new meters sourced from suppliers will be compliant.

What does the changeover look like in real life?

If you are supplied directly by Eskom or the municipality, it’s likely that you’ll simply receive an additional two tokens at some stage, which you would need to enter into the prepaid meter.

However, being a private utility service provider, Power Measurement and Distribution endeavours to make the process a bit simpler:

• We engage beforehand with managing agents and trustees to inform them of the process.

• We send a technician to the site to perform the upgrade on the meters.

• For those meters that we are unable to access, we would generate the tokens on our vending system, which the customer would receive when they make their next purchase.

• If they have any problems with entering the additional tokens, they can simply phone our dedicated call centre.

Have you received correspondence from your utility service provider? Have they upgraded their systems to be able to continue providing services to you beyond November 2024? Or perhaps you’re simply unhappy with the level of service you’ve been receiving (or not receiving!). 

You’re welcome to contact the team at Power Measurement, and we will gladly assist you in moving your meters to our vending system.

For more information, please visit www.powermeasurement.co.za or contact Terence Drake, Branch Manager – Power Measurement & Distribution Cape Town at terenced@powermeasurement.co.za.

You can also contact info@tvdmconsultants.com should you have any questions regarding the legalities behind these 'upgrades' within your scheme.

If you have not already done so, click here to sign up to our newsletter.

About the Author

Terence Drake was appointed as Branch Manager for Power Measurement & Distribution Pty Ltd in 2017. As a senior manager in the team, he specialises in driving business growth through proactively identifying improvement areas, effective client engagement and increasing operational efficiencies.  He is a strong people manager with extensive experience working in dynamic technical and service environments on a country and regional level.