New Eskom pricing could crush solar in South Africa

As more people start going off-grid the taxes on solar panels and batteries will suddenly and mysteriously increase.
 
To be honest the majority of South Africans, myself included, are not able to afford the upfront cost of a full off grid set up and will most likely just have to cough up whatever additional charges Eskom gets approved.

Just imagine if the mobile network providers were state owned and started to charge you a monthly connection fee for their network infrastructure even if you were just on prepaid and hardly bought any airtime.

Eskom has not solved for the maladministration in their business but are always so keen on charging more, leaving us hostage to an SOE with zero accountability.
 
All it'll do is increase non payment. More and more people will just connect illegally and those who can afford it will be going off grid. When it's said and done they'll be getting less than half of the revenues they're collecting today.
 
The more i read the garbage this Jamie Mckane character writes the more i wanna eat my own vomit
 
IRVING said:
To be honest the majority of South Africans, myself included, are not able to afford the upfront cost of a full off grid set up and will most likely just have to cough up whatever additional charges Eskom gets approved.

Just imagine if the mobile network providers were state owned and started to charge you a monthly connection fee for their network infrastructure even if you were just on prepaid and hardly bought any airtime.

Eskom has not solved for the maladministration in their business but are always so keen on charging more, leaving us hostage to an SOE with zero accountability.
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There are places that financr solar and even the worst finance deals are starting to look attractive given the annual increases this lot are contemplating.
 
IRVING said:
To be honest the majority of South Africans, myself included, are not able to afford the upfront cost of a full off grid set up and will most likely just have to cough up whatever additional charges Eskom gets approved.
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This, and also everyone who rents instead of owning their property can't exactly go off grid.
 
Zoomzoom said:
Uh yes some of that is Eskom but most of it is the DA taking their slice first.
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What is the DA doing with the funds supposedly? Fixing the Zim the ANC started there?
 
To go fully off grid is insanely expensive unless your usage is really really low.

Especially if you factor in low yield days (cloud etc)... You'd need a decent diesel generator as well, and a system that integrates it seamlessly.
 
BBSA said:
The solution is to go off-grid.
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The price model already includes this, i.e. they recover the cost of taking electricity to your front door. Now whether you use electricity or not this charge is included. The bulk of what you pay for monthly is made up of your usage. They propose to hike the other part, bringing electricity to your house "to cover for their capital investment". They realise that most people are now going off-grid. They probably considered the ethics of demanding levies from solar installations, but that would've been equal to charging you for God's freely given sun.
 
Vice said:
They realise that most people are now going off-grid. They probably considered the ethics of demanding levies from solar installations, but that would've been equal to charging you for God's freely given sun.
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no this is coming as well. registering your solar installation was them fact finding on just how much they can expect to make.
 
Is it possible to have the electricity feed removed from your house?

Candles and gas are beginning to look attractive.
 
Evening Guys, Eskom is losing revenue steadily due to people moving to solar hybrid solutions. I for one have recently installed a 5kva solar system and I must say it is a pleasure not to be totally dependent on them, My visit to City Power to convert my meter to prepaid was also a eye opener as there were many people converting meters to prepaid as they had installed solar. As many of you have mentioned this makes those with the means more determined go totally off grid. Eskom is losing paying customers which makes them realize who is going to pay for the non paying, free riders. Instead of solving the root problem they believe screwing over the paying customers will solve the issue. Intellegence is not a flower that grows in everyone’s garden and clearly Eskom is dumb as ****.
 
R13... said:
All it'll do is increase non payment. More and more people will just connect illegally and those who can afford it will be going off grid. When it's said and done they'll be getting less than half of the revenues they're collecting today.
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The taxpayer will ultimately fund the deficit, as we currently do.

Even when going fully off the grid, we will still pay, e.g. property tax, etc.
 
As somome who is completely offgrid i can tell you its not as expensive as you might think (or at least as i initially thought)

The main thing is to get your usage at night low and to replace appliances with more energy efficient ones.

You do also have to get used to not using the oven(if its elec), dishwasher or tumble drier at night.

Things with elements are the most energy hungry to run.

Get a vacuum tube geyser and connect a (correct)gas geyser to its outlet with a temp. selector valve to top up the water temp in winter. Throw out the tumble drier and get yourself a spindle and 2x drying racks and a good clothes line outside. Swich to a gas hob. Wash the dishes with your hands or only use the dishwasher during sunny days. When you replace your fridge and or freezer have a look at bosch, they consume 90w each. Get a LG toploader (200w) and change all your lights to LEDs. Insulate your house better and paint your roof white. Only use the AC during hot sunny days or get yourself a misting fan instead.

You'll then be able to run a house easily with a 5kw inverter + charge controller(R10 000), 12x 325w panels (3.9kw) @ R20000 and a 7.4kwh liFePO2 pack (R35000) lasting you at least 10-15years with almost no maintenance.
 
ProAsm said:
We already have this in PMBurg.
We pay R500 a month connection fee even if you switch off your electricity, you still pay.
Everytime electricity goes up, this connection fee goes up by the same percentage.
It sucks!
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Based on the dumb argument by eskom, this fee should never go up because it's a fixed cost.

Just a scam to have you pay a lot even if they dont delivery electricity and probably looking to hike the overall tariffs illegally. They need to change their business model, not tariff structure only.
 
Too many Halundi type idiots in control Ohh wait it all stems from anc and guvment.
 
Oh good grief people. Just when it couldn't get crazier. Now the taxpayer is to fund our renewables rollout delay?
 
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