You've received a message asking you to type 2 tokens into your prepaid meter or you've read about the TID rollover in the media.
This webpage explains everything you need to know.
Simply put: The TOKEN IDENTIFIER (TID) Rollover is worldwide project to update and renew the unique identifiers used for prepaid energy transactions after 24 November 2024, ensuring continued reliable metering.
To be a bit more technical: The Token Identifier is a 24-bit field, contained in STS compliant tokens, that identifies the date and time of the token generation. It is used to determine if a token has already been used in a payment meter. The TID represents the number of minutes elapsed since the base date of 1st January 1993. The incrementing of the 24-bit field means that at some point in time, the TID value will roll over to a zero value.
The TID Rollover is only relevant to prepaid electricity, prepaid water meters and smart meters manufactured before a certain date. (The date differs from one manufacturer to another.) The TID rollover has no effect on traditional post-paid electricity meters.
The determining factor is the meter's firmware (operating system). All meters' firmware version residing on the secure module must be STS6 and therefore support STS Edition 2.
You don't have to know any of this technical mumbo jumbo.
There have been several news articles about the TID rollover in the media which you can find with your favorite search engine.
The STS Association (Standard Transfer Specification) initiated the project and has an entire website explaining in detail what the TID rollover entails.
We are systematically working through all our complexes and clients to make sure we don't miss a single meter that must be rolled over.
Once your meter comes up for the rollover you will receive two SMS's. One will give you information about the rollover with a link to this site. The other SMS will contain two 20-digit tokens. (These are called "key change tokens".)
(Make sure you enter the tokens correctly!)
IMPORTANT: If you have purchased any prepaid electricity/water, you need to enter those tokens before you do the rollover. OLD TOKENS WILL NOT WORK once the rollover has been done.
After the rollover you can purchase electricity/water as usual and the new tokens will work as it has prior to the rollover.
Your electricity/water meter will stop working. Any prepaid tokens you enter after 24 November 2024 will be rejected if the meter has not been updated.
Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid the rollover. The TID rollover project is done worldwide, and no-one is exempt.
If you don't do the rollover before 24 November 2024, we'll have to send out a technician to do it on your meter, and you will be charged a call-out fee.
No. The amount of credit on your meter will be exactly the same after the rollover as before the rollover.
It doesn't cost you a thing. We take care of all expenses of the rollover.
The only exception is of you didn't comply with the rollover instructions before 24 November 2024 and we need to send a technician out to do the rollover manually. If we have to send out a technician due to nonadherence by a client, a callout fee will be charged.
When you punch in the two 20-digit tokens we sent you, the meter will make a sound similar to when you punch in a credit token, after you enter each token.
The meter will give an error message if something went wrong when you punched in the token(s). Try again and make sure you punch in the correct digits.
If the meter still gives an error message, phone us at 012 804 1039 or email us at info@proteametering.co.za.
There are codes you can enter into the meter to check the Firmware version. This code differs from one brand of meter to another. You can phone us at 012 804 1039 or email us at info@proteametering.co.za to get the code for your meter. The firmware should be 1.2 or 2.0.
We can also check on our system whether the rollover codes has been issued for your meter/unit.
Phone us at 012 804 1039 or email us at info@proteametering.co.za and we'll send you the tokens again.
Don't worry. We've got your back. We'll make sure each and every meter is STS edition 2 compliant long before 24 November 2024.
After 24 November 2024 your meter will stop accepting tokens, unless the rollover has been done. In other words, if you refuse to do the rollover, you will eventually run out of electricity/water after 24 November 2024.
You have a smart meter or a post-paid meter. Our system will automatically do the rollover. You don't have to do anything.
The Token Identifier is a 24-bit field, contained in STS compliant tokens, that identifies the date and time of the token generation. It is used to determine if a token has already been used in a payment meter. The TID represents the number of minutes elapsed since the base date of 1st January 1993. The incrementing of the 24-bit field means that at some point in time, the TID value will roll over to a zero value.
All STS prepayment meters will be affected by TID roll over on the 24/11/2024. Any tokens generated after this date and utilizing the 24-bit TID, calculated on base date 1993, will be rejected by the meters as being old tokens as the TID value encoded in the token will have reset back to 0.
In order to overcome the TID rollover occurrence, all meters will require key change tokens with the roll over bit set. In addition to this, the base date of 01/01/1993 will be required to be changed to a base date of 01/01/2014. This process will force the meters to reset the TID stack memory to 0. To avoid previously used tokens from being accepted by the meter due to the TID stack reset, the key change process changes the meter key at the same time.
In short it comes down to the meter and dates used in prepaid tokens.
The TID (Token ID) is calculated from a given base date and has a life span of 31.9 years, after which the meter will not accept new tokens.
At the end of its life the TID memory in the meter has to be reset (also known as TID rollover) and the meter key has to be changed to prevent old tokens from being used again.
Existing vending keys are linked to the 1993 base date and a key revision of 1. For this base date the TID reaches its end of life on 24 November 2024.
STS Edition 2 vending keys are linked to a 2014 base date and a new key revision. For this base date the TID reaches its end of life in 2045.
This is an international project with cooperation between many entities for many years.
In South Africa the project is managed by the Standard Transfer Specification Association (STS Association).
You can visit the STS Association website HERE
STS6 is the firmware version residing on the secure module (the special computer that generates prepaid tokens) that supports STS Edition 2.
STS Edition 2 is a general term used to refer to the latest suite of STS specifications and IEC standards, which includes the security upgrades as specified in STS600-4-2 and IEC 62055- 41 Ed3. The relevant STS specifications are available on the STSA website and the IEC standard is available on the IEC web-store https://webstore.iec.ch.
All STS products (old and new) have to comply with STS Edition 2 before 24 November 2024.
In short, these are standards that relate to vending systems. Prepaid meters need to be made ready for the new standard, therefore the TID rollover project.
You can read all the technical details on the STS Association's website here: https://www.tidrollover.com
The Standard Transfer Specification (STS) has become recognised as the only globally accepted open standard for prepayment systems, ensuring inter-operability between system components from different manufacturers of prepayment systems.