The Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has made significant progress in updating prepaid (token) meters across the country.

In a statement released on July 3, the company revealed that a total of 2 million meters have been updated in the last three weeks since the launch of the “Update Token Meter Yako” campaign.

The free exercise targets a total of 7.4 million prepaid meters, whose software needs to be updated to ensure customers continue enjoying access to electricity.

KPLC’s Managing Director and CEO, Dr. (Eng.) Joseph Siror, expressed optimism about the progress made so far.

“The numbers are encouraging, and we are happy to note that our customers have taken the call to update their meters seriously.”

“We are almost at 30% of the targeted meters, and we are optimistic that all our prepaid customers will have updated their meters by the 31st of August deadline,” said Dr. Siror.

Phased Approach to Minimize Disruptions

The update is part of an ongoing global exercise that targets all prepaid meters using the Standard Transfer Specification (STS), a universal method to transfer tokens to prepaid meters while ensuring the security of generated tokens.

Also Read: Kenya Power Launches Campaign of Updating 7 Million Meters; How It Will Work

To ensure a smooth rollout, KPLC noted that it had adopted a phased approach where prepaid meters are scheduled for update in batches.

Once a meter is scheduled, a customer receives an SMS notification, and the update codes are sent upon the purchase of an electricity token.

“The phased approach has ensured that the prepaid system is not overloaded with customer requests for the update codes, minimizing challenges such as system delays and making it easier to purchase tokens and access the update codes,” explained Dr. Siror.

KPLC self-service platform

In addition to the SMS notification, customers can also access their prepaid meter update codes through KPLC’s self-service platform *977#, which serves as a backup in case the SMS notification is lost.

Also Read: Kenya Power Explains Why Customers Must Manually Load Tokens in Digital Era

Similarly, customers have been advised to load any unutilized tokens before updating their meters, as failure to do so will render them invalid.

However, the company notes that the update, will not impact existing tokens already loaded into the meter.

KPLC is encouraging all prepaid customers to update their meters once they receive the necessary codes, and the company is incorporating important feedback to ensure a seamless process for all customers.

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