Eskom using satellites to find households with unregistered solar power systems

South African households and businesses that have not registered their grid-tied solar power installations should be aware that Eskom is using satellites to identify properties with such systems.

The power utility recently confirmed that it would use satellite imagery to find homes that have not registered their solar power systems in its small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) programme.

Solar panels must be exposed to the open sky to perform effectively, so unless their colour and appearance match a roof, they are typically clearly distinguishable in satellite photos.

Eskom has intensified its SSEG registration efforts since late 2024, after previously providing solar power installers with inconsistent information regarding these requirements.

Sustainable Energy Africa has estimated that over half of rooftop solar PV installations in South Africa are not registered. Some of these are in areas with established SSEG policies.

However, energy experts and solar power installers have blamed a lack of proper national SSEG frameworks, poor processes and admin, and high costs for registration hesitancy.

One of the most controversial requirements applies to Eskom Direct customers and could cost homes with solar power users tens of thousands of rand.

The power utility demands that its customers have a professional electrical engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) sign off on their systems.

Energy expert Chris Yelland has raised doubts about the legal standing of this requirement, which Eskom enforces under standards set by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

“I question whether that is even legal because Eskom is not allowed to pass mandatory standards,” Yelland said. “It can make voluntary standards, but I don’t know if it’s legal.”

Yelland stated that the only legal requirements about solar power systems in homes are outlined in South Africa’s Electrical Installation Regulations.

These regulations only require that an electrical installation be issued with a certificate of compliance from a registered electrician or electrical contractor.

The Electrical Contractors Association of South Africa (ECASA) also informed MyBroadband that the industry has already adopted an international standard that enables electricians to approve solar power systems.

Satellite photos accessible to the public

It should be emphasised that Eskom only has the power to require SSEG registration from its Direct customers.

It will be up to individual municipalities to identify non-registered systems in their own areas of governance.

Staunch privacy advocates may be critical of Eskom or other power utilities for using such personal data to target non-registered households.

However, anyone with an Internet connection can view satellite imagery, including through popular tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth.

Satellites have been utilised for various solar-related scientific studies, including mapping solar potential and estimating the amount of rooftop solar energy installed in specific areas.

A recent study by students from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, University of Fort Hare, and Stellenbosch University showed how rooftop solar adoption was limited to more affluent areas.

Google allows people to request that their property be blurred on its Street View application, but the same cannot be done on Google Earth or Google Maps.

Regardless, such actions may be useless as there are many other publicly-accessible geographic mapping tools that provide access to satellite photos without a means of removal or censoring.

Eskom and municipalities could also use innovative software to streamline the identification process.

Geographic information mapping software company Esri has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system. While initially used in Australia and New Zealand, it was recently adapted for local use.

Esri South Africa’s geospatial industry lead, Angelo Duarte, explained how the system worked in a presentation at the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities’ 70th Convention in October 2024.

“We used AI to scan a certain metro. We told the AI, ‘this is what a solar panel looks like’ and we fed it hundreds of images [of solar panels],” Duarte said.

The AI was able to identify 3,684 registered parcels of land with 331 solar panel arrays. Just 16 of the properties were verified to have registered in that metro’s SSEG programme.