Solar-selling problem in Joburg — with some good news

Solar power users in Johannesburg who are keen to sell back their excess electricity will have to wait several more months before they can earn credit for their extra power.

However, the city is charging much less than other municipalities for the bidirectional meter to measure how much electricity they are feeding in from their system.

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) first announced it would offer a feed-in tariff to small-scale embedded generators (SSEG) in mid-2023.

More than a year and a half later, this tariff has yet to be implemented, leaving a substantial amount of untapped capacity lying unused — right on the metro’s doorstep.

MyBroadband recently asked CoJ why the tariff had not yet been implemented.

The city’s electricity utility, City Power, explained it was because there was an ongoing process to appoint a service provider to implement the feed-in tariff scheme.

“The project is currently estimated to take approximately four to six months,” City Power said.

“Upon completion, the project will be transferred to the finance department team for implementation of the feed-in tariff.

“The finance department will communicate the expected duration for this phase. We will provide further public updates, including the timeline, once confirmed.”

Once appointed, the service provider will be responsible for the following:

• Configuring and setting up bidirectional meters for all registered PV solar customers
• Assessing existing systems to identify necessary upgrades and providing recommendations
• Advising on required billing changes

The CoJ is one of numerous municipalities that have been slow to develop and implement official SSEG policies stipulating the legal and technical requirements of grid-tied solar systems on their distribution networks.

While the city has already provided guidance on ensuring a system is compliant with its criteria, the lack of a feed-in tariff provides little incentive for thousands of customers to get on board with its programme.

City Power told MyBroadband it has roughly 130MW of commercial SSEG generation across 530 businesses and 3MW residential generation across 394 households registered on its database.

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) estimated there was 400MW of commercial solar capacity in the metro and 85MW among residential users by 2023.

That means less than a quarter of the city’s commercial installations and just about 3.5% of residential systems have been registered.

Registration requirements

City Power has encouraged customers to proactively register their SSEG systems and warned that it will announce its enforcement of registration in “due course”.

Both customers with existing and planned installations must obtain a notification number from the CoJ by completing the metro’s electricity supply application form.

“This crucial step allows customers to engage with City Power’s SSEG department, where they can submit their application via email at [email protected],” the city said.

“Following this, a site inspection will be arranged, and once the inspection is complete, customers will be added to our database.”

“It is essential to note that customers will be notified when City Power is ready to facilitate backfeeding, should they express interest.”

In addition to the application form, customers must provide the following documents during the process:

• A Single Line Diagram
• Inverter Datasheet
• Inverter NRS Certificate
• Design/Drawings
• Site Plan/Layout
• Maintenance Procedure
• PV Commissioning Form
• Electrical Certificate of Compliance.

Systems exceeding 350kVA capacity will also require a grid impact study approved by the planning evaluation committee.

“Following a successful review, City Power will issue a pre-approval letter, leading to the final approval letter,” the city said.

“To facilitate the measurement of both electricity import and export, a smart bidirectional meter will be installed at the customer’s expense.”

City Power said the meter replacement “should” cost about R2,100, including VAT. That is substantially lower than the prices of meters in other municipalities.

For example, the City of Cape Town charges R6,043 per meter while the City of Tshwane’s meters cost R12,356.

The caveat is that CoJ’s fixed charges for postpaid customers are around R1,000 higher than in the other two municipalities.

It also remains to be seen whether the city will allow SSEG feed-in tariffs to count towards other cost items on users’ municipal bills or will be strictly for electricity charges.

The City of Cape Town is the only major municipality that pays feed-in customers cash if the valued of their excess kWhs exceeds the value of their consumed kWhs.

The table below compares the fixed charges, bidirectional meter costs, and feed-in tariffs in South Africa’s three biggest metros.