Eskom and City Power insist solar registration is vital for protecting infrastructure and planning the country’s future energy mix.
In its campaign to get households to register their solar systems, Eskom emphasises that “unauthorised grid-tied generators can endanger the lives of operating staff, the environment, equipment and the quality of electricity supply”.
Association for Renewable Energy Practitioners president Carel Ballack said the registration was a safety function.
“If the municipality shuts down power in the area to maintain the electrical infrastructure, they needed to know whether there was a chance that a generator [tied to the grid] would start up somewhere and the changeover switch wouldn’t function and the generator would push power back to the municipal supply line,” he said.
Ballack said regulator Nersa utilised generation capacity to determine the energy mix for the power supply going forward.
“They use the growth of solar to determine how the mix is going to affect all the other sources they have,” he said.
Nersa’s data supports energy planning, not taxation – yet
“We would be able to argue that we could use that data to apply taxes,” Ballack said.
“But to understand that, you would have to look at different municipalities and that each municipal region had its own rates and those rates had to be approved by Nersa.
Nersa is not necessarily the entity that would be taxing users for using the electrical infrastructure,” he said.
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Ballack said the issue was that electricity has become a human right.
“You have at the bottom of the income chain those who are getting electricity for free because it is a human right, while Eskom has to maintain the infrastructure for the portion,” he said.
“There’s a percentage of the population that doesn’t pay for electricity at all and the issue is that those who can pay are being burdened to pay for those who can’t.”
Proper registration stressed
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the organisation had an “obligation to maintain grid safety, stability and visibility of all systems connected to its network”.
“Even small systems can pose risks such as back feeding, phase imbalances, or grid disturbances if not registered and properly integrated,” he said.
Mangena said registration ensured technical compliance and protects both customers and infrastructure.
He said everyone with solar – regardless of size – had to register. “All customers with solar PV systems connected to City Power’s grid are required to register their systems, regardless of the size or capacity,” he said.
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“This applies to grid-tied and hybrid systems. The registration process allows City Power to assess technical specifications, ensure the installation meets safety and regulatory standards and avoid potential risks to the grid.
“Even if a system does not export energy back to the grid, registration is still required to ensure full visibility of energy generation within the network.”
Mangena said City Power will not provide bi-directional meters at no charge and customers will be responsible for the cost of the meter and its installation.
These would enable customers who had spare generation capacity to feed back into the grid – and be paid for it.
Implementation timelines
Mangena said the procurement of a service provider to implement the feed-in tariff incentive is still underway, and would take four to six months once the service provider is appointed, after which further implementation timelines will be communicated.
City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said: “Customers who are not interested in back-feeding energy into the grid are still required to register their systems with the municipality by completing the relevant application forms.
“Although the city encourages customers to feed excess energy into the grid, only customers with installed bi-directional meters can export excess energy into the city’s grid.”
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