Kiss Eskom goodbye

South African households can go fully off-grid with a solar and backup power system for much less in late 2024 than at the beginning of the year.

Eskom’s plan to increase electricity tariffs by a combined 66% over the next three years has sparked a fierce reaction from the South African public, civil society, and politicians — including those serving in government.

The power utility’s applications still await approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

However, if the regulator’s approval process follows a similar trend as in recent years, the hikes will likely be far above inflation.

Fortunately, many households have significantly reduced their reliance on grid power and slashed their electricity bills through fit-for-purpose solar and backup power systems primarily intended for load-shedding protection.

This could shield them from the worst of Eskom’s incoming tariff hikes, at least in the near future.

However, the power utility is also pushing for a drastic change in electricity tariff calculations, where fixed costs contribute a more significant part of revenues.

Under its retail tariff plan, it proposes significantly increased fixed capacity charges that will make it far more expensive to merely have access to a grid connection.

That means users with usage below Eskom’s average of 900kWh will be paying more on their bills.

Many grid-tied solar users fall into this category because a large part of their consumption is covered by self-generation.

If Eskom’s proposals were adopted, it might push many households to go completely off-grid, especially considering the prices of solar panels, inverters, and batteries have plummeted in 2024 due to an oversupply of stock.

Distributors and suppliers imported record numbers of these products in 2023, but consumers’ constrained budgets and Eskom’s ability to keep the lights on for a third of 2024 have seen demand plummet.

However, solar power distributor Rubicon and installer AWPower told MyBroadband that now could be one of the best times to buy a solar and backup system in South Africa.

Rubicon’s Greg Blandford explained that newer products with higher prices would hit the market next year, and the old stock should be cleared by mid-2025.

At current prices, it is possible to get an entry-level solar and backup power system that will meet well over 90% of a small home’s demand from around R70,000.

However, because prolonged periods of inclement weather can radically reduce solar generation, ensuring this system can fully replace Eskom or municipal power requires much more capacity.

Multiple solar power installers have told MyBroadband that an off-grid system’s panels and batteries should ideally be oversized two or three times what they would be for handling 90% of a household’s demand.

The inverter capacity must also be upgraded to deal with the maximum demand at any given time, as the system will no longer be able to tap into the grid for any usage over and above the inverter’s peak output.

A single-phase 60-amp or 80-amp connection from Eskom can support up to 13.8kW or 18.4kW, respectively, while entry-level inverters feature 3kW or 5kW output.

Most households would only use more than 5kW during their peak demand periods and when running multiple demanding appliances together.

However, the advantage of going completely off-grid is that you can use a more affordable non-hybrid inverter, as you would only have your panels and batteries as power sources.

The table below summarises the amount of solar panel and battery storage capacity homes with varying electricity consumptions would need to go entirely off-grid with an oversized factor of 2.5.

Over 20% price cuts

MyBroadband configured four systems to meet the demand of the four example households above.

For pricing, we used Solar Advice’s online calculator as it allowed for precise configurations to meet our requirements.

We found that a fully off-grid entry-level system that could supply a household with a 450kWh average monthly consumption would cost about R173,019.

That is about R51,500 cheaper than when we priced a similar system at the start of the year — a 23% price reduction.

It was also roughly R5,700 cheaper than in July 2024, showing that prices have continued declining in recent months.

With Solar Advice’s 455W panels, you would require at least 15 modules for this setup, so keep in mind that available roof space will be an important factor.

For larger systems, the price reductions are even more profound.

A household that uses 1,200kWh of electricity per month, a massive 40-panel, 3-inverter, and 12-battery system costs R353,681.

That is 33% cheaper than the R528,637 they would have paid at the start of the year.

The table below shows how much it would cost for homes with varying electricity consumption habits to go fully off-grid in November 2024.