Eskom won't fine residential customers for failing to register their solar systems by 30 September 2026

[Luis]

Eskom backs down on R30,000 fines for people with unregistered solar panels

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena has reportedly confirmed that the utility won't fine residential customers or cut their electricity supply for failing to register their solar systems by 30 September 2026.

This was revealed by EE Business Intelligence managing director and energy expert Chris Yelland, who said Mokwena had confirmed this to him and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).

 

[Hemi300c]

Eskom will seek another way to threaten solar people which will also be unlawful.

 

[W@P]

Eskom will seek another way to threaten solar people which will also be unlawful.

This is absolute horse shiiitt.

It's like wtf. Like BMW will sue you for not buying one of their cars but buying another brand, or the taxi ass will fine/sue you for walking rather than making use of their services. Something along those lines.

 

[Hemi300c]

This is absolute horse shiiitt.

It's like wtf. Like BMW will sue you for not buying one of their cars but buying another brand, or the taxi ass will fine/sue you for walking rather than making use of their services. Something along those lines.

Or as happening continuously in SA being threatened with death if you use anything other than the taxi's.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Eskom backs down on R30,000 fines for people with unregistered solar panels

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena has reportedly confirmed that the utility won't fine residential customers or cut their electricity supply for failing to register their solar systems by 30 September 2026.

This was revealed by EE Business Intelligence managing director and energy expert Chris Yelland, who said Mokwena had confirmed this to him and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).

Nah, Eskom CAN'T fine.. not won't.

 

[Brian_G]

Commie concepts seeping more and more into the fabric of our society..

 

[denmendez65]

@Next Thing

Looks like they have no powers as predicted by others. Empty threats with no way to enforce anything. This is Africa as @wingnut771 says.

 

[Nom Chompsky]

@Next Thing

Looks like they have no powers as predicted by others. Empty threats with no way to enforce anything. This is Africa as @wingnut771 says.

Yes, the one good thing about South Africa and Africa more generally are that the governing classes are literally too incompetent to enforce nanny state nonsense. Even under Covid when the full power of the state was imposing ridiculous regulations, there was widespread non-compliance.

 

[Next Thing]

@Next Thing

Looks like they have no powers as predicted by others. Empty threats with no way to enforce anything. This is Africa as @wingnut771 says.

They have the power but not the will.
It is enabled and enforced as illegal connections

 

[Bad Ballie]

It was as normal just more lies from government and their henchmen. Even municipalities cannot force you to register or require anything other than a COC. from you. This had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with their bottom line.

 

[damian24]

In practice Eskom does actually need to know how much and where the solar is for capacity planning, for example, solar eclipse in the UK yesterday had the providers paying everyone to either switch off/sell power into the network - there is a direct link between solar generation and required baseload. In the UK the solar generation across the country dropped by around 1GW within seconds and the gap needed to be filled. You can't do this if you don't know with some degree of accuracy how much behind the meter capacity (including battery) there is.

The second is less of a concern in SA right now, in order to sell into grid, a solar system has to increase the output voltage slightly higher than the grid, the more houses on a chain, the higher the voltage goes, and can in some cases go beyond the regulated maximum of 253v which trips out car chargers and pushes the voltage even higher (tripping out the grid). It's necessary to approve each instance of someone wanting to sell into the grid so that you don't end up with this or, at the very least, so you can adjust transformer output voltages to compensate.

In reality though, we know that Eskom likely want to do this to levy a "solar generation" charge of some sort...

D

 

[wingnut771]

In practice Eskom does actually need to know how much and where the solar is for capacity planning, for example, solar eclipse in the UK yesterday had the providers paying everyone to either switch off/sell power into the network - there is a direct link between solar generation and required baseload. In the UK the solar generation across the country dropped by around 1GW within seconds and the gap needed to be filled. You can't do this if you don't know with some degree of accuracy how much behind the meter capacity (including battery) there is.

The second is less of a concern in SA right now, in order to sell into grid, a solar system has to increase the output voltage slightly higher than the grid, the more houses on a chain, the higher the voltage goes, and can in some cases go beyond the regulated maximum of 253v which trips out car chargers and pushes the voltage even higher (tripping out the grid). It's necessary to approve each instance of someone wanting to sell into the grid so that you don't end up with this or, at the very least, so you can adjust transformer output voltages to compensate.

In reality though, we know that Eskom likely want to do this to levy a "solar generation" charge of some sort...

D

Sell into the grid.

 

[HAL 9000]

In practice Eskom does actually need to know how much and where the solar is for capacity planning, for example, solar eclipse in the UK yesterday had the providers paying everyone to either switch off/sell power into the network - there is a direct link between solar generation and required baseload. In the UK the solar generation across the country dropped by around 1GW within seconds and the gap needed to be filled. You can't do this if you don't know with some degree of accuracy how much behind the meter capacity (including battery) there is.

The second is less of a concern in SA right now, in order to sell into grid, a solar system has to increase the output voltage slightly higher than the grid, the more houses on a chain, the higher the voltage goes, and can in some cases go beyond the regulated maximum of 253v which trips out car chargers and pushes the voltage even higher (tripping out the grid). It's necessary to approve each instance of someone wanting to sell into the grid so that you don't end up with this or, at the very least, so you can adjust transformer output voltages to compensate.

In reality though, we know that Eskom likely want to do this to levy a "solar generation" charge of some sort...

D

 

[Bad Ballie]

In practice Eskom does actually need to know how much and where the solar is for capacity planning, for example, solar eclipse in the UK yesterday had the providers paying everyone to either switch off/sell power into the network - there is a direct link between solar generation and required baseload. In the UK the solar generation across the country dropped by around 1GW within seconds and the gap needed to be filled. You can't do this if you don't know with some degree of accuracy how much behind the meter capacity (including battery) there is.

The second is less of a concern in SA right now, in order to sell into grid, a solar system has to increase the output voltage slightly higher than the grid, the more houses on a chain, the higher the voltage goes, and can in some cases go beyond the regulated maximum of 253v which trips out car chargers and pushes the voltage even higher (tripping out the grid). It's necessary to approve each instance of someone wanting to sell into the grid so that you don't end up with this or, at the very least, so you can adjust transformer output voltages to compensate.

In reality though, we know that Eskom likely want to do this to levy a "solar generation" charge of some sort...

D

IF you remain on the grid or want to sell back into it, which isn't a good idea in the first place.

 

[Flanders]

Until the next bout of threats...

 

[recre8]

I’m on Eskom and haven’t registered my solar installation. When you register your system you are forced to give up prepaid and use a postpaid time-of-use tariff with a roughly R1000/m connection fee, capacity fee, delivery surcharge etc. And you have to pay for the new meter and kiosk and installation. Even if you don’t export to the grid or have a off-grid system. Its ridiculous. I’m submetered (one eskom meter for the estate with a 3rd party supplying individual meters) and Eskom’s response was that the tariff for the entire estate will then become the post paid time-of-use. Its basically a way of extracting at least some monthly money from anyone who has an inverter.

 

[damian24]

IF you remain on the grid or want to sell back into it, which isn't a good idea in the first place.

I'm in Europe producing around 8MW each year on my system and sell my spare capacity into grid for R22k in cash rebates.

I don't have to pay for the facility though...

D

 

[Flanders]

I’m on Eskom and haven’t registered my solar installation. When you register your system you are forced to give up prepaid and use a postpaid time-of-use tariff with a roughly R1000/m connection fee, capacity fee, delivery surcharge etc. And you have to pay for the new meter and kiosk and installation. Even if you don’t export to the grid or have a off-grid system. Its ridiculous. I’m submetered (one eskom meter for the estate with a 3rd party supplying individual meters) and Eskom’s response was that the tariff for the entire estate will then become the post paid time-of-use. Its basically a way of extracting at least some monthly money from anyone who has an inverter.

Also eskom direct here. All that headache and expense for the only positive being to get very marginally better daytime rate which is covered by solar anyway and then be forced to use your batteries during the extortionate peak rate time. The math doesn't math.

Also, I suspect that once they've pooled enough registered solar users, they will dream up a completely new tariff for us which would equate to even more (literal) daylight robbery.

 

[recre8]

Fyi, here is the tariff information for when you register your system. And you can’t go back to prepaid either. The average home will use Homeflex 1. The fixed monthly fees run R667 before any usage. I’d be perfectly ok with complying with registration if I could declare that I won’t be exporting power and be allowed to stay on Homelight tariff. Their arguments about safety don’t even make sense because you can run a backup inverter with no solar or a petrol generator connected to your inverter without needing to register. Its only when you have solar that they really threaten.

 

[recre8]

Also eskom direct here. All that headache and expense for the only positive being to get very marginally better daytime rate which is covered by solar anyway and then be forced to use your batteries during the extortionate peak rate time. The math doesn't math.

Also, I suspect that once they've pooled enough registered solar users, they will dream up a completely new tariff for us which would equate to even more (literal) daylight robbery.

They’ll find a way to just have a fixed monthly cost tariff which would make solar unattractive enough for new installations and completely invalidate and return-on-investment for existing users.