New regulation - electric prepaid meters?

[Gene]

Heard talk about regulations about prepaid meters, anyone knows something?

[Saqib]

There have been recent updates regarding prepaid meters, particularly focusing on the need for upgrading to comply with new standards. By November 2024, prepaid meters that are not updated will cease to function. This is due to a change in the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) standard meters, requiring them to be upgraded to a certain value of standard before the deadline. If the meters are not updated with the required upgrade token, they will become inoperable, resulting in potential losses for consumers.

Utilities and municipalities are obligated to upgrade their vending systems from STS Edition 1 to STS Edition 2 specification. Prepaid meters purchased before the upgrade need to be reset with two key change reset tokens. This reset process changes the base date in the meters, which is crucial for their continued operation. The process of updating these meters can be done either by consumers when they purchase credit or by technical staff visiting the meters.

The process poses various challenges, including a lack of awareness among consumers and difficulties faced by municipalities in funding and executing the resets. Not all municipalities have started this process, and there are concerns about the readiness and capacity to complete these upgrades before the deadline.