IKEDC: New Recharges Fail – REJECT – New Tariff & KCT
Sucks to be a Nigerian, yeah? We have got zero publicity. Things change without notice to the customers, no documentation whatsoever. If this is your first time of recharging your prepaid meter (i.e. activation), you should head here.
This post is for existing prepaid users whom all of a sudden can no longer recharge their meters, or why you are getting those 3 different 20 digit PINs instead of one. Let me explain what happened.
The electricity tariff has been increased. You might have heard that, here is the news. Your meters were configured with the now old tariffs, which got configured when you put in those 2 20-digit PIN during activation. Now the tariff has changed, your meter needs to be re-configured to the new tariff so it syncs with the main server. If you recently bought a new PIN to recharge and you got 3 of them; 2 of them are what is called Key Change Token (KCT), the last one is recharging PIN.
What are those extra 2 20-digit PIN:
Sometimes, the meter is on a different Tariff from what the meter number was programmed on. This could occur when the incorrect Tariff detail is supplied by the installer upon meter programming. In this case, it makes it impossible for the purchased Credit Unit Token to be loaded on the meter.
Key Change Token is generated from EKEDC HQ, Marina to change the meter Tariff, thereby allowing credit top-up on the meter.
The token consists of the: Meter Number, Date and Time Generated, Details of Changing Tariff [From and To] (Supply Group, Tariff Index and Tariff Code) and the Token Number which consists of 40 digits.
Key Change Token is FREE, unless where penalty charges for bypass or meter tampering apply
Mojec Manual – https://www.ekedp.com/page/mojecmanual
So, what really happened? The increase in tariff by the government needs to be configured in all the installed meters, the only way to do that is to send the customers those PINs on their next recharge. If the meter is not configured to that tariff, recharges should not go through.
How to Recharge
This is pretty straight forward, just as usual. The only step to take is the enter the 20-digit PINs consecutively.
- Enter the first 20-digit. It should return 15t or 25. As long as it is not REJECT, you are fine
- Enter the second 20-digit. It should return same as above
- The last 20-digit is your recharge PIN, this should now load the equivalent Kwh of the new tariff.
I did not get the KCT. My recharge still fails
If you did not get the extra 2 20-digit code, your recharges will not work because your meter is not configured to the new tariff. Lucky for me, during my research I found a page on IKEDC website for generating KCT. This can be found here – http://ie-payments.com/apps/
Put in your meter number, it will generate 2 different 20-digit codes. Follow same process above to recharge. This should fix it.
I am a fellow concerned Nigeria that gets sick of frustrations using public solutions in the country and I do well to make it easy for others after figuring it out. If you have issues understanding this post, kindly drop a comment. Other technical issues while following the steps correctly should be forwarded to IKEDC customer support.
James John
Software Engineer