Big solar power approval mess in major South African city

The City of Tshwane (CoT) has provided detailed instructions on how households with grid-tied solar systems can get their installations approved to comply with grid code regulations — and it will be no picnic.

The metro is demanding that small-scale embedded generators (SSEG) submit both electronic and physical documents and cautioned it may take up to six months to approve the systems.

In addition, applicants must visit two different offices for handing in their physical documents and applying for a bidirectional meter.

The information was part of the city’s feedback to MyBroadband after months of requests for more details on how households should get approval for their systems.

Eskom’s intensified SSEG registration drive from late 2024 has caused panic among many solar power users.

While it has specific rules for Eskom Direct customers, these are based on requirements in the country’s grid code and standards, which other licenced distributors must also enforce.

In many instances, people installed systems before municipalities had developed or implemented SSEG policies.

According to the South African Local Government Association (Salga), only 20 of the 228 municipalities in the country had official SSEG application processes in place by 2019.

In 2020, the number increased to 38; a year later, it was 70.

By 2023, 106 municipalities had official processes in place and by 2024, the number had increased marginally to 115.

Tshwane has had an SSEG policy since 2022. In March 2024, it called on customers with embedded generation systems to register to feed back extra electricity.

Residents were told they could kick off the registration process by emailing [email protected].

A MyBroadband staff member sent two queries to the SSEG registration email address — first in July 2024 and then a follow-up in August 2024 — never heard back from the city.

Grid-tied users on several forums and other platforms have also expressed great frustration with getting their systems approved.

The graph below shows how many municipalities supported official SSEG application processes in the past five years.

MyBroadband asked the city why it was not responding to customer queries about SSEG registration in January 2025. It did not provide feedback about this.

It was only after a second query on 5 March 2025 that the city responded, although it still did not elaborate on why many residents were finding it difficult to get their systems registered.

Our second query came after we noticed a Tshwane resident on Power Forum complaining about the city refusing to remove his grid connection so that he could go fully off-grid.

“The municipality says they will not remove the cable and meter,” he posted. “They will only remove the connection if the building is being demolished or rebuilt. They flat refuse to remove a standard residential connection.”

MyBroadband found this position strange, considering the city had previously told us that this was possible for all residents.

The resident still wanted to comply with the municipality’s grid rules, so he contacted a service provider to assist with SSEG registration for grid-tied systems.

They told the customer they no longer handled applications in the metro because some had been submitted as far back as 2022 and had received zero feedback.

In our second query, we asked the city why it was refusing to let this customer cut off his connection and go off-grid.

It did not respond to this question in feedback sent on 6 March 2025. However, it finally provided detailed steps for the registration of SSEG systems.

These explained that customers must fill out a 7-page application form for embedded generators and email it to [email protected].

The submission must be accompanied by several other supporting documents, including a single-line diagram of the site layout and details of the control philosophy.

In addition, applicants must deliver a hard copy of the same documents to one of two people on the fourth floor of the Middestad Building at 252 Thabo Sehume Street in the Pretoria CBD.

These must preferably be provided in a ring-binder file to allow additional documents to be added as required.

Applicants must also ensure that they meet the following requirements:

• Inverter must have passed third-party type test certification
• Single-line diagram must clearly indicate the point of connection to the city’s electrical network
• No Internet drawings and pictures of components on the diagram
• Minimum load figures of the premises
• Electrical certificate of compliance for the existing connection or a SANS 10142 letter of compliance from an electrical engineer for the embedded generator

Customers are also required to enquire about the bi-directional meter for feed-in by visiting a different office on Francis Baard Street in Pretoria.

Once all the required documents have been provided, they will be evaluated for approval.

Only thereafter, the installation may proceed, although plenty of after-the-fact approvals are likely to happen considering the city’s delays in developing an SSEG applications process.

Once the installation is done, the city must be provided with copies of the commissioning reports, and a site inspection and testing procedure will be scheduled.

Below are links to all the documents required for SSEG registration in Tshwane:

• Application for embedded generator
• Embedded generator commissioning report
• Notification for testing for grid access for low-voltage connections
• Feed-in electricity tariffs
• Bi-directional meter application
• Bi-directional meter and other electricity costs