Big problem with solar power system prices
Eskom Direct and certain municipalities are making it more expensive for households and businesses to make their grid-tied PV solar systems legally compliant than necessary, according to a major electrician representative in South Africa.
To understand the issue, it is important to know that a PV solar system consists of both low-voltage alternating current (AC) and high-voltage direct current (DC) wiring.
The inverter is connected to the distribution board via 230V AC wiring, which is also used for the rest of the wiring in South African homes.
This portion of the system is what requires an electrical certificate of compliance (CoC) as it is directly integrated with the home’s wiring.
The wiring is done according to the SANS 10142-1 standard, known as The Wiring of Premises: Low‐voltage installations, on which all qualified electricians are trained.
Battery and solar panels are connected to the inverter via higher-voltage DC wiring.
The South African Local Government Association’s (Salga’s) Status of Embedded Generation in South Africa report has highlighted that many municipalities require professional engineers or other Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA)-registered persons to sign off such systems.
“This can be expensive, and the industry has called for properly trained and certified installers to also be given the authority to sign off on the commissioning of systems up to a certain size,” Salga stated.
“While opinions vary as to the best way forward for different size systems, the cost of ECSA registered person sign-off is undoubtedly a barrier to residential customers coming forward to register their EG systems.”
“Fortunately, this ECSA-person-signoff requirement will largely fall away upon the publishing of the long-awaited SANS 10142-1-2 standard which covers DC wiring and other aspects of PV installations.”
The standard that Salga referred to is The Wiring of Premises: Additional special requirement for low-voltage, small-scale embedded generator installation connected in parallel with the normal supply.
The first draft of the standard was published in May 2020, with a closing date of 20 July 2020 for public comment.
A second draft was published for comment roughly a year later, with a closing date for public comment in June 2021.
The final standard was published in October 2021 but subsequently withdrawn due to non-compliance with the SABS Norm.
The absence of the standard is one of the major reasons Eskom Direct customers are up in arms about the power utility ramping up its SSEG registration drive, which comes with additional costs.
Eskom specifically requires that its direct customers supply an embedded generation installation (EGI) compliance report signed off by an electrical engineer (PrEng) or engineering technologist (PrTech) registered with ECSA.
“Eskom has established an EGI Report as an interim solution to include the compliance of an installation of SSEG while awaiting the publication of SANS 10142-1-2,” the power utility explains in its SSEG policy documentation.
Eskom and municipalities are wrong — Electricians
One of South Africa’s biggest representative bodies for electricians maintains that an Installation Electrician (IE) or a Master Installation Electrician (MIE) can sign off on both the AC and the DC portion of a solar power system installation.
“We strongly oppose this implementation and have repeatedly expressed our opposition,” said Electrical Contractors Association of South Africa (Ecasa) national technical advisor Grant Seeman.
“According to the Electrical Installation Regulations 2009, an Installation Electrician (IE) can work on any electrical installation, except for specialised or hazardous locations.”
“Similarly, a Master Installation Electrician (MIE) is permitted to work on any installation, covering AC voltages up to 1000 volts and DC installations up to 1500 volts.”
“There is little to no need for electrical engineers.”
Seeman also told MyBroadband that South Africa adopted the IEC 60349-7-712 standard, now known as SANS 60364-7-712, which is used for the DC component of a system.
“This document is being assimilated into the next revision 10142-1, bringing it under licensed electricians’ purview rather than engineers’,” said Seeman.
However, Ecasa has warned that an entry-level electrician with only core qualifications — the electrical tester for single-phase (ETSP) — can only issue a CoC for the AC portion fed from the inverter.
Ecasa Highveld regional director Anthony Schewitz has cautioned that certain individuals and associations had made statements discrediting portions of standards to suit a particular narrative.
“There have been brazen statements and videos made asserting the specific narrative which allowed the unqualified, plumbers, and other trades to claim stakes in our industry,” Schewitz said.
“I would caution people to rather petition a change in legislation through the correct channels prior to twisting the legislation to suit prerogatives.”
“Associations and citizens must respect the law as it is written; not the law that they want. Unless we want to create openings for illegal operators to infest and create anarchy.”
The table below outlines Ecasa’s view of which types of electricians are qualified to approve DC installations.
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