Electricity distributor, Umeme Limited has announced commencement of upgrading of Yaka meters around the country.
In a statement on Saturday, the company said the upgrade will ensure the Yaka meters meet the global metering standards and deadline of November 2024.
“The process upgrades the software of the Yaka meter to ensure compatibility with the latest vending system. This will improve the customer vending experience, enhance system security and electricity token recognition,” Umeme said in a statement.
They explained that at a dual rollout strategy is being implemented by Umeme staff or customer self-service rollovers.
“The project will be implemented in an area/district-based approach to minimize service interruptions. Customers shall be adequately informed in time.”
According to Umeme, customers scheduled for upgrade will receive an SMS and three tokens that they should key in the Yaka meter in the order they are received.
“An upgrade confirmation message shall be displayed once the token loading is successful.We would like to reassure our customers and stakeholders of our plans to ensure the completion of the project on time and a seamless experience in the upgrade process.”
November deadline
The Minister for Energy, Ruth Nankabirwa on Friday said that in May 2020,the Standard Transfer Specification Association (STS Association), the manufacturers of prepaid meters issued a critical notice affecting all STS prepayment meter users including electricity utility suppliers.
“The notice indicated that on 24 November 2024, all prepayment meters based on STS technology will stop dispensing electricity, because each credit token issued to a prepayment meter has a unique token identifier (TID) encoded into 20 digits that needs to be updated,” Nankabirwa said.
To this she noted that the meters will on November, 24 top working unless they are updated.
She urged Ugandans to heed to the call to have their meters upgraded.
“By November, 24, all prepaid Yaka meters will stop dispensing electricity. Technology is technology and you cant stop technology from changing .The manufacturers of the meters have come with new demand to change technology. Everyone should cooperate.”
