Grid-Tie Connection in SA

[AchmatK]

I am looking at importing a 2kw wind turbine and installing 1kw of solar pv panels.

My question is will the grid-tie invertors work in SA? Basically how the manufacturer claims on how they work is that the electricity from the turbine and the PV panels will go into the invertor which is plugged into a normal wall socket. If the power that is being produced is more than what is consumed, the meter will run backwards. If the power produced is less than what is needed, the difference will come from the grid.

I have prepaid box so cannot see how the digital meter can run backwards.

If it works as above then I will not have a need for an expensive battery bank. i might just add a small backup battery bank in case of power failures or load-shedding.

I have already converted to a gas stove and oven and have a solar panel for water.

I'm not looking to make money off any extra capacity that I produce.

The invertor is a pure sine wave invertor which syncs the wave from the turbine and PV to to that of the grid.

 

[ld13]

In short, afaik, no. We do not have a "live" system as in some other countries.

Are you located in Strand? How high is the turbine?

Edit: I seem to recall that grid-tie inverters are illegal in SA

Edit: Yep, some very nice and recent reading material I spotted in the Engineering News
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/ar...et-metering-for-systems-under-1-mw-2010-10-22
and
http://absoluteenergy.co.za/index.p...l-articles/69-new-eskom-tariffs-justify-solar

 

[AchmatK]

In short, afaik, no. We do not have a "live" system as in some other countries.

Are you located in Strand? How high is the turbine?

Hi. Yes, in Strand. I haven't worked out exactly how high the turbine will be but looking at about 12m

Edit: I seem to recall that grid-tie inverters are illegal in SA

Edit: Yep, some very nice and recent reading material I spotted in the Engineering News
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/ar...et-metering-for-systems-under-1-mw-2010-10-22
and
http://absoluteenergy.co.za/index.p...l-articles/69-new-eskom-tariffs-justify-solar

The engineeringnews article is encouraging. I'm on prepaid so still not sure how a prepaid digital meter can run backwards. I know that it might run slower if the system is generating 2kw and my use is 3kw as the difference would come from the grid.

I am still waiting on answers from council as to the requirments for installing a wind turbine in a residential area and if its possible to do so before I order the turbine.

If I am using less than what I am producing and the excess goes back into the grid, will my meter units increase?

 

[AchmatK]

Going with the Grid-Tie invertor would also involve less electrical work as the unit is simply plugged into any available wall socket and no work to the existing wiring in the house.

 

[ld13]

Hi. Yes, in Strand. I haven't worked out exactly how high the turbine will be but looking at about 12m
I am still waiting on answers from council as to the requirments for installing a wind turbine in a residential area and if its possible to do so before I order the turbine.

There is mainly 2 concerns with wind turbines in residential areas. Firstly it is the height (some neighbors just don't like new high stuff on your property that might just 'reduce' their 'view'). Not much you can do about that.
Secondly it is the noise. As far as I've seen your vertical axis turbines usually produce less noise compared to the normal ones. But that is not from personal experience.

Got any names/links/model numbers of the stuff you plan to bring in? Would like to have a look-see.

 

[AchmatK]

There is mainly 2 concerns with wind turbines in residential areas. Firstly it is the height (some neighbors just don't like new high stuff on your property that might just 'reduce' their 'view'). Not much you can do about that.
Secondly it is the noise. As far as I've seen your vertical axis turbines usually produce less noise compared to the normal ones. But that is not from personal experience.

Got any names/links/model numbers of the stuff you plan to bring in? Would like to have a look-see.

I will be getting most of the items of eBay. I find SA companies are way over-priced and are normally between 50% and 75% more expensive even after shipping and customs duty are added on.

I haven't had an issue with buying from eBay before and don't think the quality would be an issue. I just bough a 4 camera wireless CCTV set with 23IR night vision, motion detection, internet monitoring and 4 channel USB DVR for $240 including shipping. A similar system in SA would have set me back between R2 500 and R3 500.

I am looking at getting the items from Missouri Wind & Solar or Alaska Wind. You can do a search on eBay for them. My internet is upto $#!t tonight and keeps timing out when i try to get onto eBay.

 

[AchmatK]

Just got feedback from David Lipschitz from My Powerstation with regard to feeding into the grid through a digital prepaid meter.

The old fashioned meter will run backwards. There are two types of new prepaid meters: one stops when you reverse feed the grid and one goes forwards when you reverse feed the grid. Unfortunately I don't know which is which, but will find out. For the one that goes forwards: my understanding is that if you are producing 2kw but your demand is only 1.5kw, then your meter will go forwards at .5kw. If you are producing 2kw and your demand is 2.5kw, then the meter will go forwards at .5kw (as expected). I am busy checking up on this and will get back to you asap.

I am still a bit concerned that the meter will still run forward even though I would be feeding into the grid.

 

[UnUnOctium]

depending on how the invertor and the meter are designed, the meter will either count your contribution (i.e. increase credit, unlikely in SA) or just ignore it and you'll be using up x kW of the x+y kW the invertor can supply at that time while your meter's reading remains constant (0 usage from the grid).

 

[Arthur]

The REFIT programme and tariffs are not yet implemented in SA at consumer level. I have a grid-tied inverter, a 12kW Power Star bidirectional unit from MLT Drives.

 

[The_Ogre]

I had a look at the CoCT's tariffs page and this caught my eye:

This tariff is available only for approved residential SSEG Connections, where the Consumers offset their small scale generation against their purchases from the Municipality, provided that their purchases exceed their generation. An additional meter reading fee may also be applicable.

So it looks like we're finally allowed to feed electricity back into the grid

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/Pages/ElectricityTariffs.aspx

 

[ToxicBunny]

To a degree it seems...

 

[FlatspinZA]

There is mainly 2 concerns with wind turbines in residential areas. Firstly it is the height (some neighbors just don't like new high stuff on your property that might just 'reduce' their 'view'). Not much you can do about that.
Secondly it is the noise. As far as I've seen your vertical axis turbines usually produce less noise compared to the normal ones. But that is not from personal experience.

Got any names/links/model numbers of the stuff you plan to bring in? Would like to have a look-see.

I can see the neighbours' permission being the biggest obstacle to widespread adoption. It's fine if you live in a larney area with sprawling gardens, but I think most people would be pretty peeved.

 

[The_Ogre]

I would have expected the media to be much more vocal about this. This article is two weeks old and I'm sure lots of people don't know about this

http://www.nmbbusinesschamber.co.za/blog/posts/bay-electricity-consumers-the-first-to-go-green

It seems people in PE and surrounding municipalities are able to grid-tie as well now.

edit: sending rpm a PM for an article on this

 

[AchmatK]

This is a positive step. I moved since i made this post abs haven't had much time to or money to get this going. My new house however has those old meters that spins. Looking more at the solar option than wind and my meter should run backwards.
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