Eskom makes it easier to register rooftop solar

[Dave A]

Eskom has scrapped a requirement for households with grid-tied or hybrid rooftop solar power to get sign-off for their systems from persons registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa).

The change forms part of a simplified compliance and registration process for Eskom’s small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) customers.

Instead, they will only need their systems to be approved by a person registered with the Department of Labour (DoL), aligning with the country’s Electricity Installation Regulations.

Extract from My Broadband here

[Derlyn]

Interesting. I notice that the article speaks of registered Installation and Master Electricians being able to sign off.

Does this include or exclude single phase testers ?

[GCE]

Interesting. I notice that the article speaks of registered Installation and Master Electricians being able to sign off.

Does this include or exclude single phase testers ?

Extract from Eskom Media statement - excludes SPT


The major change, finalised last month and effective from 1 October 2025, is that Eskom’s residential customers may now have their systems signed off by a Department of Labour (DoL)–registered person (excluding single-phase testers), and an Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA)-registered professional is no longer required. This follows a review of compliance and safety requirements as well as a stringent due diligence process, pending the expected changes by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) .

[Tradie]

My take on this whole registration thing:

1/ Should an engineer sign off solar installations, only if the system is large rthan 16 kw. There has to be some form of grid management.

2/ An SSEG under 16 kw must only be signed off by a DOL registered IE or MIE, with the correct SSEG training, certification and experience. Ther are too many engineers and registered elctrical contractors who dont have aclue what they are doing, you just have to do random inspection to confirm this statement, I can post a few expamples.

3/ All SSEGs should be registered and a panel asigned to carry out random checks/policing or insurance companies should get invloved and set a minumum standard for insrance cover.

4/ Until some form of policing is implemented, it dosent matter who issues the COC. We were joking about the new wireless multi function testers. I can now sit in my office send out teams with a go pro/smart phone with a cameras and a wireless multifunction tester and bang out test reports, without even leaving my cool comfrotable office , knowing its a numbers game and the chance that you will get get caught is small, and even if you do get caught out as we learnt last week with anotehr dodgey non COC. You just call the person who signed the COC, they spend a day or 2 fixing/ damaging stuff to a point that the customer just wants them out. It works in my favour, because now I dont compalin, I just just fix and bill,

[Tradie]

By the way I dont understand how people think it is going to be free now that the engineer doesnt have to sign, you stil have to do all the documents, the test reports, the COC, diagrams and everything else.

If you are doing the design, test report, COC, the registration, dealing with the council,preapring the docmnents for less than R10 000, you are part of the problem in the industry.

That is without even taking into consideration all the non compliant installations, once people start registering, just because you dont need an engineer, doesnt mean you can register a non complaint installation, which were done by installers who were not registered electrical contractors and are no longer operating.

It is still going to take a few years before we get some direction in this industry and iron out the mess.

We need to start with the public awaerness campaign , which willtake a few years.

The councils need to employ and train staff to deal with the registration and site visits.

The standards need to be revised to align with he industry.

Training for registered electrical contractors.

Hopefully by 2030, things will start taking shape.

[Tradie]

Just when you thought it couldnt have got any worse, everyone is going to be calling their installer for their "FREE" SSEG regsitration... that people is where the fight is going to start, and boy are we in for a proper one, due to the lack of public awareness and understanding of the whole process, we are already 100s of thousands of SSEG in already, with only a small percentage being registered to date. I dare you to prove me wrong and issue a fact sheet with true figures.

1/ Firstly it is no the installers resposibility to register the SSEG, it must be done by the resposposible person (owner).

2/ The SSEG registration is not complete free, just because you dont have to get an engineer, doesnt make it "FREE"

3/ It takes hours for someone to preapre the documents, I would bet my old bicycle tubes, that 99% of installers did not provide their customers with all the documents required to hand in for the registration.

4/ You are still going to need a DOL registered electrical contractor to prepare the documents, which may save you R10- 15 000 on engieers fees (R1500-R2000 per hour) , now the cost to register will only cost around R10 000 if you dont want to feedback into the grid.

5/ If you dont want to feed back into the grid then it will just be the cost for someone to register the SSEG.

6/ If your sytem was designed as a money saving solution and not a 2 hours load shedding solution, then you o get the tarrif changes, the meter replaced (I wish you luck with that, we waiting 11 months for a standard meter to be replaced) and a mothly fee added to your bill.

Free SSEG registration, wake up and smell the roses people surely you are not that ignorant.

Wait for the public awareness programs to be launched, educating the public on what and how the whole registration process will, then check the offfical cut off date (I dont beleive March 2026 is enough time) we in for a few more years of training, education and skills development, before anyone can start implemanting any form of procecution. I would say around 2030 if a committee is created, training started and the public awareness was launched today.

If the new power program doing the roands in the media, is completed before 2023, then you might need to concern yourself with registrations before then.

The SSEG crowd seem to be controling the narrative, until Eskom can produce enough power to keep the lights on if every person switched off their SSEG .

Just imagine what would happen if every person had enough of being bullied by Eskom, the concern wouldnt even be if they all switched off their solar, that might just take us back ot stage 6, if they all starting charging their batteries, the grid might shutdown completely. We have a major problem, it needs to be addressed.

My suggestion would be that everyone in the industry should be sitting around a table, talking about the challenges, regulation updates, a working COC/test report document, which includes easy to understand installation guidlines for solar panels and lithium batteries, simple easy to understand public awareness campaign, skills training for both installers and Eskom/munic. ( I have attended many online seminers, we have a major lack of skills in all sectors)

[Tradie]

In summary, there is no such thing as free SSEG registration, the fact that an engineers is no longer required , just reduces the cost by R10- 15000

In reality the DOL registered elctrical contractor, with the correct training, skills and experience still has to do what the engineer had to to do, so it might only be R7-10 000.

If you paying less than R10-1500 (excluding the meter replacement) for an SSEG to be registered, you probably only paid R450 for yourCOC , I wish you luck with an insurance claim

For the record, I had to deal with lightining damage claim, because all the documentation was in order, the assessor spent less than an hour going through all my docuemntation including a visual inspection, the following day the claim was approved. Words from the assessor " I wish all my clients had all their documents, drawings and quotes in order like this"

That saying FAFO, cheap can be very epxensive, nothing in life is free, you get what you pay.