Old KRN, new KRN: what the prepaid meter recoding means for you
Eskom and municipalities ran a national programme to update every STS prepaid meter's Key Revision Number. If your meter wasn't recoded, it stops accepting tokens. Here's how to fix it.
Old KRN, new KRN: what the recoding means
Every STS-compliant prepaid electricity meter in the world had to have its Key Revision Number / Token Identifier (KRN/TID) updated by 24 November 2024. After that date, an unrecoded meter will reject all new credit tokens until you load two free Key Change tokens.
What you'll see
When you try to load a new token, the meter shows "Wrong KRN", "Old KRN", or simply rejects the token without explanation. The token receipt is fine — the meter is the problem.
The fix in three steps
1. Buy a small prepaid token (R10 is enough). Your vendor will print two Key Change tokens above the credit token, free of charge. 2. Enter the Key Change tokens in the order printed. Each one is 20 digits. 3. Then enter the credit token. Your meter is now on the new KRN and will accept future tokens normally.
If your meter rejects the Key Change tokens too, the firmware is out of date and you need a physical visit from your supplier. Use our [meter and municipality lookup](/lookup) to find the right phone number.
Why this happened
The STS standard reserves a 24-bit number for token uniqueness. By 2024, that counter was running out across the global STS estate, so every meter had to be migrated to a fresh number space. South Africa's rollover ran from 2022 to late 2024.