Development of an accelerated life test procedure for electronic prepayment metering

In the late eighties Eskom identified large-scale electrification as a national priority. The programme was crafted during the early nineties and formally started in 1991. Integral to this programme is the use of electronic prepayment metering. At present, there are over 1 million of these meters of various manufacturers and design in the field with targets of 500000 installations per annum being set. The application of electronic prepayment metering technology en-masse is still in its infancy (compared to the Ferraris Disk technology). As such, Eskom does not have the knowledge nor experience to be able to predict the long-term field performance of this technology. To this end a research programme with the above as its objective was initiated. This paper introduces in the objectives of this programme. More specifically, it outlines progress towards the development of an accelerated life test (ALT) for this technology. It is shown that there are still many issues and questions requiring further research. To this end the research programme is planned to run for a further three years