Is My System Compliant?

Hi, We're potato farmers in the Western Cape looking to install solar to reduce our costs for irrigation. We have about four 200KVA supply points distributed across our farms which we're planning to add solar. We've gotten a few quotes from installers and all of them seems to have different opinions regarding a question we had for one or two of our supply points. As we're expanding our operations, some of the 200KVA points are being utilised to their limit, so what we wanted to do is to cover the additional demand via solar by installing for instance a 300kw system instead of only 200kw. However, this is where the installers differ, some say due to the Eskom SSEG regulat…

Good day. I stay in Randburg and is suppose to be getting power from City Power. I have have solar power and are on prepaid. Recently City Power has removed my circuit breaker without notifying me. After about 3 weeks of trying to understand what the reason was, I went to the City Power offices. They informed me that my circuit breaker was removed because I'm not using enough electricity. I now need to pay a penalty of R12000 to get reconnected. This is the same penalty you would pay if you had an illegal connection. Firstly, a warning to prepaid customers, you need to load electricity every month, otherwise you will be flagged as "non-vending" and City Power wi…

Hi, trust you all are well. Can a Inverter and batteries be installed indoors? In a room inside the house and what is the restrictions/ requirements

Hi All We are having a problem with electricians providing a quote to CoC our holiday home. It is a thatched roof and some of the wiring runs close to the thatch without being in conduit. This must obviously be remedied but the difference in opinion on how is about R40 000 worth. All or most of the wiring is twin flex. One guy wants to rip all the house wiring out and replace with Surfex the other wants to just encase all the twin flex in conduits, and one in between with some Surfex and some conducting. Is there a definitive specification in the regulations for thatched roof house wiring and where do I access this please. Will eventually be going solar, with the panels…

Hi All COJ was in the news again with regards solar users with prepaid meters and forcing them back to post paid. To my understanding this ups the minimum monthly charge from R230 to R998+VAT. Ignoring the virtues and legality of the above, should this come into effect it would make far more sense for me to (personally) bolster my existing solar panel array as well as batteries and potentially buy a generator for those continuously rainy days and go fully off grid. The questions I have are: 1. Have any former City Power/COJ solar users voluntarily gone off grid? Was the process simply to go to the municipal office and request it, settle any arrears and pay around R650? 2.…

WRT https://api.citypower.co.za/ftp-service/download-pdf/{filepath}?filepath=Media_Room%2FMedia_Statements%2FA_guide_to_solar_instations_in_the_City_of_Johannesburg.pdf 1) What are the current rates for feeding back into the grid? Is there still that R400 odd upfront cost with less that 50% rebate vs what they charge? 2) I've heard that Eskom is slowly switching to meters that track Time Of Use. Would installations with just battery backup require the "solar" registration? 3) Would a completely separate solar circuit (ie no connected to the grid) mean that it is not required to register even if there was an grid supply to the same property?

Hi everyone, I bought a new battery and would require a new CoC after installation. I would appreciate it you could let me know if there are any red flags on my current setup that I could fix prior to getting someone out to do the CoC. Thank you.

I would like to explore what options we have to coexist with the new Eskom Regulations. I will ask a few furtyer questions as I go. We are two pensioners, not too well off, and have a very small house in a complex. We have made what is a huge investment to us to install a 5kVa hybrid inverter, 8 panels and 3 batteries totalling 11 kWh. We thought we were helping the situation by reducing our usage of Eskom who appeared to be struggling to keep the lights on. As we are based in Cape Town we are pretty much off grid for 8 months, but during the winter months need the grid to maintain battery charge. We are connected to Eskom on the HomeLight, prepaid tariff. if we a…

Hi All I am in the final throws of planning my move to electricity self sufficiency and part of this would be disconnecting from City Power. I just need a little assistance with my understanding. The CoC will prove that the inverter has no incoming feed from City Power. I will use this to then request Disconnection from City Power and as such no solar registration is required as I have no potential to influence the grid. Is this correct? Thanks David

Interresting change in policy. CoJ is embarking on converting households with PV on prepaid to postpaid meters it seems Link to news article This was started last year, which was only related to non-vending prepaid meters, looking at the original document on CoJ website. Original CoJ notice Seems like they added PV households in the mix now to more accurately monitor imports and exports.

Morning all Just want to get some opinions from those in the industry I have signed an OTP for a property that has solar installed. From everything I can see the inverter is not certified for NRS097-2-1 and does not have a type certification available. It is a Below is an extract from a Ekhurhuleni doc which is attached. Luckily I did include the type certification as a requirement in the OTP and as far as I know a Solar COC cannot be approved for a system not meeting legal requirements. ATM just trying to see how much of an "arsehole" I must be with the sellers. SSEG-General-Information-for-Public-General-1.pdf

Hi all I'd like to add another string of panels, and potentially another inverter at a later stage. With that, do I have to re-do the entire registration process on the following Scenarios: Keep existing inverter, but add additional panels to current strings (system can take it) Add inverter and run additional strings on this. In scenario 2, I understand a CoC would have to be re-done and the wiring between the Main DB and Inverter DB would need to be re-done to larger cable, currently 6mm2. And then lastly, would I have to redo the registration if I add an additional battery but system remains the same as it is currently?

Just heard from the installer - cert approval - engineer chain -approvals that my 3 x 5K inverter grid-connected install will not be approved by the authority. Is this something new (thumb sucked rules) or some law put into place while we were sleeping, around 1 PHASE housing and Solar ?

Hi Looking for some advice, I am looking to do a solar install for my house and am looking at the Luxpower 5kw off grid inverter but I see this isn't on the approved list by City of Cape Town. I see the Hybrid version is on there, but before I spend the extra to get the hybrid version, is there any reason the CoC wouldnt be approved with the off-grid? I am not looking to feed back power to grid. Thanks

Hi Guys, I would like to get some info before makings some decisions and also ensure system is complaint to avoid insurance issues later on. When was it a legal requirements when installing solar that you have DC Breakers installed between incoming pv and the inverter, so that you can isolate the PV Strings when needed? Currently there are only fuses, and essentially you cannot isolate the pv strings during the day safely. Installer wants to charge for doing this, stating that it's a new regulation? Regarding the solar panels earthing, Should each panel be connected together from a single source down to the earth spikes or is it allowed to connect the earth wire to the f…

I had a solar system installed in Oct 22 and was issued with COC. All AC and DC protection devices was installed in same DB box. DC on top row and AC on bottom row. Last week I had new string added by different installer but he tell me that SANS code now requires that all DC and AC are split and he have to do that before he can issue new COC that is triggered by the addition to the the system. Can anyone that is up to date with the code please comment on this requirement?

If I mount a weatherproof enclosure vertically with a seal on the lid and fit waterproof glands on the left and right sides of enclosure to connect between lights is this legal Thanks for any advice

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this question but I’m having a hard time to use the city of Cape Town website to be able to register my inverter so what I’ve tried to do so far , I’ve registered on the coct portal and applied for energy services once I was approved I saw the house address wasn’t showing on the profile under energy services , I called the number on the site and basically it came down to that the house is on a trust and I need to register it as a business ( so I’m told ) I’ve sent everything on the website but it was rejected , and I knew it would be rejected because on the online form it was asking me for business registra…

So with all the media hype around us all getting fined if we don't register our solar systems I am trying to get it sorted out so I can just carry on with my life. My first attempt was to talk to one of these companies (who have great reviews) who go and sort out your issues with City of Tshwane and get them to apply for a total removal of the eskom line and meter. They informed me that it can't be done (although there is a pretty good article on Mybroadband stating it can be done) So option 2 is to register the system with COT I have read up on the basics (application form, requirement for engineers, circuit diagrams etc etc). Then I called a service provide…

An installer changed our house to prepaid on Thursday, showed me how to set up the meter, and left. When trying to purchase electricity at Spar, they said there's an error "unknown meter number". No answer at City Power call centre, or response to a call log. I finally got through to the call centre today, and they said I need to register the meter, with my ID, either at the depot or calling again on Monday. This is the first time I hear about the need to register the meter - is this standard procedure? I expected this to have been covered by the application process? Also, any advice on the success of registering it over the Call Centre, or should I …

I have a 5.5Kw Sunsynk Inverter and a 5.5 Kwh Hubble battery. They are connected to the grid, but not feeding into the grid. Power is supplied by 10 x 550w Longhi solar panels and Eskom power. Battery and inverter are installed against a double brick stone wall in a separate space (3m x 3m x 2.6m) next to my kitchen separated from my kitchen by a double drywall and hollow door. That separate space is not a living space. I was advised that it would not be approved unless i encase my system in a metal cabinet. Now I just read that it is not allowed to include breakers in that same cabinet. If that is correct then the whole setup would need to be reconfigured against for m…

Good day everyone, I have a solar system that is basically running the house offgrid. The only thing not on citipower is the geyser which I will take care off next year. My question is, when my consumption drops to basically zero, will I get disonnected by citipower? This is mainly for postpaid as I am a postpaid customer. I have read about people on prepaid getting disconnected but not sure about postpaid. I will continue to pay the network and service charges as per my COJ statement. I should add that I am currently not considering Prepaid as an option yet despite the 1.2k in fixed charges.

City of Tshwane Challenges Thread

Hi All, I know the requirements of NRS and IEC. However, I have no idea where to apply to get my inverter approved to appear on the approved inverter list. Would love to know where I can actually make the application. Thank you!

CoCT SSEG Help My installer claims to have submitted a physical application for SSEG (Small-Scale Embedded Generation) and dropped it off, but I have not received any updates or documentation. I also did not sign any authorization or paperwork for this process, so I find it unlikely that this application was made. If I did sign something, I do not recall doing so, and I am confident I wouldn’t forget such a significant step. I am now planning to submit an online application myself, as the installer has become unresponsive, and I want to ensure the process is handled efficiently. Currently, the only document I have from them is the Certificate of Complianc…