Lets do it right and register our solar installtion.

[Dave A]

Dave, what happened with the ECA and discussions with Ethekwini ? Are they going t ocome to the party and gear up to tackle the influx of registrations?

At the Durban branch meeting, a couple of ex-municipal inspectors put their hand up to find the right person to talk to as our RD was getting nowhere. Contact has been made and it is agreed that a small delegation will meet with Ethekwini representation to discuss the issue. Date yet to be set, though.

At that same meeting, only one person reported having got a domestic rooftop PV installation "registered", and it really sounded like it only happened at all because he's one of those said ex-municipal inspectors. He called a mate at Ethekwini, who came and had a look at the installation, and apparently that was that - all sorted.

I wasn't going to push for me to be on the delegation and was going to leave it to the technical experts. But the more I hear and read as to how there doesn't seem to be a functional process in place, the more I think I probably should go.

[Isetech]

We can confirm that if you live in Durban and supplied by Ethekwini electricity department, there is no registration proccess in place and the website is actually false information being shared with the public?

No need to panic and no need to be concened about fines or being disconnected.

[Dave A]

We can confirm...

At this point we can confirm nothing
Once there is a meeting with the Ethekwini officials, there may be more definitive news to share.

[Isetech]

So long as they go come out the gates at a full gallop, threatening huges fines and disconnection notices for the next 5 years.

For many they are just happy to have a solution to load shedding, however many have spent a little more and gone the full hog, and not expect some form of ROI for the additonal power they are feeding bacxk to asssit the grid.

Some people were told that if they had a meter with a disk they could reduce the bill by making the meter spin backwards, which would reduce in their monthly bill, thats just anothe rmyth. MAybe a year or 2 ago, before the council started flagging larger than normal reduction in the elctricity account.

You may get some relief from those inflated bills when they dont read your meter for a couple of months then suddenly, they rea dit and you get a nasty R10 000.00 figure added to your elctricity account for an actual reading, so it is not all doomamd gloom.

The question is what is the solution going forward, apply for a prepaid meter, which will reduce you monthly fee, allow you to manage your usage more acurately, maybe not, that could take more than 12 months from the date of application if you lucky.

If you planing to install solar, take note, there is a lot more to consider than just dodgy suppliers, installers, product support, warranties, safe lithium batteries installation location, pemanant neutral/earth bond or relay , how many circuits are identified in a DB, if are they bonding/grounding or earthing or installing lightning protection for your system, intial and supplimentary COC's, registration of your SSEG, feeddabck tarrifs, fines, disconnection threats, etc etc etc etc etc.

As you can see by this post, when it comes to solar, you stepping into a mine field of the unkown, just pay, smile and hope for the best.

There is a positive side to it, once installed it will become the talk of all social gatherings the app will keep your mind off all the challenges for a few months and you can boast who has the biggest most efficient sytem. Yip I am not joking, those days of going to the garage to show off your new sports car are a thing of the past. Now you man hood is measured by your backup system

At the Durban branch meeting, a couple of ex-municipal inspectors put their hand up to find the right person to talk to as our RD was getting nowhere. Contact has been made and it is agreed that a small delegation will meet with Ethekwini representation to discuss the issue. Date yet to be set, though.

At that same meeting, only one person reported having got a domestic rooftop PV installation "registered", and it really sounded like it only happened at all because he's one of those said ex-municipal inspectors. He called a mate at Ethekwini, who came and had a look at the installation, and apparently that was that - all sorted.

I wasn't going to push for me to be on the delegation and was going to leave it to the technical experts. But the more I hear and read as to how there doesn't seem to be a functional process in place, the more I think I probably should go.

[Isetech]

Lets hope it doesnt happen in the next 5 years

At this point we can confirm nothing
Once there is a meeting with the Ethekwini officials, there may be more definitive news to share.

[Isetech]

It’s like a game, see if you can figure out what to do.

You take the steps to register, to do what you think is the right thing to do, you fill out the documents and you send them to the email address on the website, it bounces, that’s where the fight started.

So, you go to social media and attempt to find a public awareness program, which helps with the correct procedure advising the public how to do the right thing, I wish you luck.

Then let’s create some form of public awareness:

What is the right thing to do, do I need to register my SSEG?

Do all SSEG's have to be registered?

1/ An axpert type system with no solar?

2/ An axpert type with solar?

3/ A hybrid bidirectional unit without solar?

4/ A hybrid bidirectional unit with Solar?

5/ If my unit is set to zero export?

6/ If the unit is bigger than 3.5 kw or 12 kw?

What are the costs involved in registering?

Do I need to get an engineer to approve the system for all backup systems or only ones with solar?

What size SSEG must be registered and approved?

If I have a prepaid meter, do I need to register an SSEG?

Can Install a prepaid meter instead of registering an SSEG?

Who is responsible for registering the SSEG, the customer or the installer?

We are not talking about 10 installations, we now talking about hundreds of thousands of installations.

Do we treat this fiasco like Etolls and just ignore it and hope it eventually goes away?

The reality is that the electricity department don’t have the staff, skills, or infrastructure to deal with this explosion of SSEG installations.

I want to install a system and home and need to decide what size system I am going to install and the type of system I am going to install before I blow R250 k on a system.

I want to reduce my monthly electricity account, by managing the usage on the property and making use of an SSEG to supply power to my appliances during the day.

I don’t want to play this game, I am going to be investing a lot of money in my system and want to do it right, I don’t want some contractor standing at my gate threatening to cut my supply because I didn’t fill out and submit some document.

I also don’t want a bunch of unnecessary costs added to my monthly electricity account because I made the mistake of registering the system if I don’t have to register it.

Do I need some fancy bidirectional inverter at twice the cost of an entry level unit, or do I just need a basic entry level unit to keep the lights on?

The registration process ands cost are going to determine what type of system and size components I install.