TID Rollover

A Token Identifier (TID) is used to determine if a token has already been used in a pre-payment meter. The TID represents the minutes elapsed since the 1st January 1993. The incrementing of the 24 bit field means that at some point in time (November 2024), the TID value will roll over to a zero value.

Existing prepaid meters (water, electricity, gas) will have to be ‘upgraded’ to accept the new TID date of 2014.

This will be accomplished by the issuing of a Keychange Token (KCT) by the vendor of prepaid electricity.

In order to update your meter keys you will be required to insert a special token called a Key Change Token. This is 2 x 20 digit tokens that must be inserted one after the other, just like credit tokens. You need to ensure that you use up all your old, unused credit tokens before you enter the key change tokens.

To recharge a prepaid meter, a prepaid meter user enters a unique 20-digit number called a token. This token is encoded with a unique value called a token ID or TID, for short. When a meter accepts a token, it stores the token ID (TID) to prevent the same token being accepted more than once. The upper limit of these unique token IDs (TID) will be reached by 24 November 2024. On this day, the token ID (TID) values will be ‘rolled over’ back to zero. Hence the name, TID Rollover.

To prepare for the TID Rollover, prepaid meter software needs to be updated from STS Edition 1 to STS Edition 2 so that the meter is configured to accept tokens for these new ‘rolled over’ token ID (TID) values. If this is not done, the prepaid meter will not be able to accept tokens and the user will be left without access to electricity.

If your prepaid meter service provider is committed to a software update program and you are prepared to do your part when the time comes, then there is no need to worry because teams are actively assigned to work through this process and prepare for the TID Rollover taking place on 24 November 2024.

Organisations such as the STS Association are also actively engaging with all stakeholders and driving the process. The STS Association has also created a useful reference site that tackles technical questions and more. On this site, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), has also established a dashboard where the status of TID rollover meter reset is displayed. The dashboard consists of various parameters on the TID rollover data, such as total number of prepayment meters to be reset, number of prepayment meters that have been reset per municipality, outstanding number of prepayment meters. Keeping municipalities and stakeholders informed.

As with anything in life, all things are possible when we work together. Prepaid meter stakeholders are mobilised to prepare for the 2024 TID Rollover and Enbaya Meters is no exception.

All prepaid meter users, vending service providers and meter manufacturers throughout South Africa (and globally) operating on STS Edition 1 software are affected by the Token ID (TID) Rollover taking place on 24 November 2024. Updating the software to prepare for the rollover requires a coordinated and phased approach because it affects everyone in the prepaid meter supply chain. You can read more about this on www.tidrollover.com.
The prepaid meter user, specifically, is involved in the final piece of the puzzle – the TID rollover key change process. This process involves a special pair of tokens called a key change token (KCT) that be inserted into the prepaid meter to finalise the update of the prepaid meter software.

This key change token pair is a set of two 20-digit activation codes that can be input into the prepaid meter in one of two ways:

• Option 1: The prepaid meter user may be issued with the key change token pair at the time when they next purchase credit. They then enter the token pair into the meter before they enters the newly purchased credit token.
• Option 2: A dedicated field-service team may be used to visit each meter and then enter the key change token pair.

Prepaid meter owners and users will be issued with instructions from their prepaid meter service providers on how and when to go about doing this.