{"id":637183,"date":"2026-04-04T07:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=637183"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:01:05","slug":"good-news-for-prepaid-electricity-users-with-solar-power-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/637183-good-news-for-prepaid-electricity-users-with-solar-power-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Good news for prepaid electricity users with solar power in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom will soon allow rooftop solar power users on its distribution network to register their systems without migrating to a postpaid tariff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility announced it was testing this system and intended to proceed to immediate rollout once initial implementation requirements were confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once enabled, prepaid customers who register on Eskom’s small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) database will also be exempt from registration fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Customers may retain their existing setup or, where required, have a free smart meter installed, and still qualify for the cost waiver for systems of up to 50kW,” Eskom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many electricity users in South Africa prefer using prepaid, as it can make budgeting for electricity more predictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also avoids the potential for bill shock, stemming from inaccurate consumption estimates by municipalities that don’t regularly check meters for actual usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to forcing SSEG customers to postpaid, Eskom Direct customers with rooftop solar systems must move to a postpaid time-of-use (ToU) tariff called Homeflex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under its other residential tariff plans, including Homepower, consumption is charged at a fixed per-kWh rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Homeflex, Eskom divides variable energy charges into three categories \u2014 off-peak, standard, and peak \u2014 corresponding with periods of low, moderate, and high average electricity demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tariff amounts and precise hours also vary between the lower-demand summer months and the higher-demand winter period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standard energy charge is similar to the flat rate on no-ToU plans, while the off-peak tariff is lower and the peak tariff is higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structure aims to encourage the use of grid power for charging batteries during periods of low demand and to discourage its use during peak demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The approach has become fairly common among utilities worldwide, driven by increased adoption of distributed self-generation due to rapidly declining solar component costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear whether Eskom’s prepaid system for SSEG users will retain a ToU mechanism, which can be implemented with certain smart prepaid meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has argued that SSEG customers should have the freedom to choose between a flat and a ToU tariff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues with prepaid meters and rooftop solar systems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Conlog prepaid meter is a popular model used by municipalities in South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the Electrical Contractors Association of South Africa (Ecasa), there is no universal technical prohibition to connect compliant SSEG systems to installations supplied via prepaid meters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecasa national technical advisor Grant Seeman told MyBroadband one potential issue was that many legacy prepaid meters were not designed to accommodate reverse energy flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Where unpermitted feed-in occurs, this may result in meter malfunction, inaccurate billing, protective disconnection, or consumers being incorrectly charged for exported electricity,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many meters deliberately cut off a property’s grid supply when an inverter is not drawing power from the grid, even when the meters are set not to export any electricity back to the grid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilities such as the City of Tshwane provide users with a code to reprogram certain meters to prevent cutoffs. The inverter must also be set to pull a small amount of electricity from the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minimum draw is typically around 20 watts, which consumes about 0.48kWh per day or 14.4kWh per month, even for users whose systems can support all their demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeman said that modern smart prepaid meters used by certain utilities may incorporate reverse-power detection and anti-tamper mechanisms to prevent unauthorised export into the distribution network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Accordingly, the permissibility of SSEG on a prepaid supply is typically determined by the local supply authority’s approved embedded generation framework,” Seeman said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framework may include requirements relating to meter type, protection interfaces, formal application approval, and commissioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One city that also forces registered SSEG customers to a postpaid billing plan is the City of Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its approach has been widely condemned, in part because postpaid fixed charges are over four times<\/a> those on prepaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom recently announced it was testing a system to allow rooftop solar power users to remain on prepaid tariff plans, which it intends to roll out immediately once initial implementation requirements were confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":637211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[28966,20973,181,104079,35414,6791,94711,96852,84773,104150],"class_list":["post-637183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-city-of-johannesburg","tag-city-of-tshwane","tag-eskom","tag-grant-seeman","tag-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa","tag-prepaid-electricity","tag-prepaid-electricity-meters","tag-rooftop-solar-power","tag-small-scale-embedded-generation-sseg","tag-smart-prepaid-meters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637183"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637311,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637183\/revisions\/637311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}