When are the Grid tie Solar systems going to be allowed

[skatingsparks]

So South Africa is the perfect country for PV solar systems. Perfect light, lots of it and a national grid which is struggling. So does anyone know when they are going to allow grid tied solar systems on a domestic/comercial scale. I know some big companies have huge systems but they have to be of a certain size(BIG) before they are allowed. I heard December from a certain solar equipment supplier but I'm guessing there is going to be some sort of lisencing issue. They are not going to let every tom, dick or harry feed power back onto the grid. I got the UK qualification but thats never good enough for here so anyone know anything. Thanks

[AndyD]

From the little I know about this issue I think it's Eskom that's dragging its feet coming to the party with the necessary grid upgrades to accommodate micro generation export to grid.

[Justloadit]

Once the black outs start, and if the public push very hard, they will quickly allow it to take place.

I recently found out from and inside contact to the way parastatals work. They can not make a freakin decision, however, if there is enough enquiries from the public via the call center, which they record the contents for this type of enquiry, "When is soso going to add this to your service?", then a decision is taken very quickly. I think it is the syndrome that no one wants to make a decision and be blamed for it if it does not quite pan out, so it is better to make no freakin decision at all - how are we ever going to learn if we are too scared to make a decision. However if the their is considerable public interest, then a decision is no longer required, as the public has made the decision for them. So the way to make changes, is to set up many people to make calls to these institutions asking for the same upgrade/service.

[tec0]

The Eskom heads are smiling to the bank, there workers can’t even get loans… The truth is Eskom is sinking and they are taking South Africa with them.

[freetoadventure]

check out http://www.rooftopsolar.co.za/ for some grid tie projects

[AM Deale]

Grid-tie IS allowed in certain municipalities, just not 100%

[AndyD]

It might be 'allowed' or perhaps 'tolerated' would be a better word but what's the point if there's no feed-in tariff structure? You won't get paid for the power you're exporting from your PV system so at present it won't make financial sense to install PV if you're on the grid.

[wynn]

You won't get paid for the power you're exporting from your PV system so at present it won't make financial sense to install PV if you're on the grid.

You are absolutely right, if the cost of installing a system that can take care of all your needs and export excess power to the grid is not going to earn some income to help amortize the outlay, why do it?

I am sure that if they introduce a payment system, even if it is a credit for future use when grid power is required (say at night for water heating) it will make it more financially viable.

I hear that certain States in the USA have an electricity meter that reverses when exporting power to the grid so you get a usage credit, then when you use more it reduces the credit to zero before charging you for any power consumed.
If the amount of credit exceeds a certain figure in the period under question you get paid out the difference.

Ed Begly was on a system that paid him a reasonable figure annually, which went a long way to financing his system.

[freetoadventure]

see the authorities are not being to encouraging, but check out http://msolarpower.wordpress.com/.

[AndyD]

I'm not saying solar PV is non-existant I'm saying with the present lack of feed-in tariff your motivation to install it wouldn't be financial. If for some reason you buy into this carbon-neutral living thing then maybe you'd consider it for those kind of reasons.

Some of the older disk type meters may run backwards when power is being exported but this probably isn't the norm because power companies want to buy power cheaper than they sell it, if exported power causes the meter to run in reverse then that's effectively the buying and selling price at parity.

[Sparks]

They must be cautious about it because black-outs were a very successful strong-arm tactic. If there was such a shortage of power available here, why was a contract signed and power exported across our borders just months before the blackouts started? At lower rates than we pay!
Local monkeypality has installed ripple relays to curb consumption over peak times. Good. Now the smelly stuff has hit the fan! Their income has dropped so drastically because of the reduced consumption that we are now facing an increase in tarriffs!

[andysox]

grid tied

Grid-tie IS allowed in certain municipalities, just not 100%

grid tied is allowed, its the export of the excess power that is the issue. And now with eskoms current woes, i think it will take even longer to implement...

[andysox]

the few houses that are exporting power back, are only pilot projects.

[SilverNodashi]

Grid tie is getting more common nowdays. Cape Town allows it, City of Johannesburg and Tswane as well and Ekurhuleni allows it without payback as well.

[Grumpy Inspector]

I am talking about the City of Capetown only

Please correct me if I am wrong , there is a Standard called NRS-097-2-1-2017-Edition-2.1-published-2020-07-20 , there is also a newer version dated 2023 that you need to comply with and then there is a request that need to be completed and sent to the Cape town electrical board ( Cape-Town-EEB705-Technical_Standard_for_the_Interconnection_of_Embe dded_Generation ) that they need to approve before you can install a Solar system , the approval takes about 120 days for each department

Hope this help

Kind Regards