The Bulldog

COCT is increasing tariffs by 13.5% for home users, absorbing some of the increases forced on by Eskom.
Those that are feeding in will see a 3.5% increase in what the city pays you for power you feed in. So you in fact contributing to the above subsidy by a fair margin.
A further note: Any "green" credits for your production are for the benefit of the city. You cannot offset this against your own business or similar.
 

So that means alternative got over 15% cheaper. 
Way to go Eishkom !
 

Well in my case after they installed the meter my own accounting differed hugely with theirs (in their favor).
I did read the meter registers in the kiosk and found the meter reading to agree with the SAP system. However a short look further I noticed that they reversed one of the phases. That's of course not a good idea.
I took photos and sent them to COCT electricity east explaining the issue. Never got a reply. Eventually had enough of that and broke the seal and fixed the issue myself. Probably would have sent a tamper alarm but I took photos of the before and after (lots of them just in case).
Since then my own accounting and theirs match closely.
BTW with a three phase system at 100A you are only allowed a total of about 17KVA feed in - not 10KVA per phase. Your capacity can be higher but you have to prove that your system will never push more than the authorized limit.
I actually have a three phase 150A feed but had to downgrade it to a 100A feed as otherwise they wanted to force me onto a commercial tariff. That would have completely screwed me over...

Well in my case after they installed the meter my own accounting differed hugely with theirs (in their favor).
I did read the meter registers in the kiosk and found the meter reading to agree with the SAP system. However a short look further I noticed that they reversed one of the phases. That's of course not a good idea.
I took photos and sent them to COCT electricity east explaining the issue. Never got a reply. Eventually had enough of that and broke the seal and fixed the issue myself. Probably would have sent a tamper alarm but I took photos of the before and after (lots of them just in case).
Since then my own accounting and theirs match closely.
BTW with a three phase system at 100A you are only allowed a total of about 17KVA feed in - not 10KVA per phase. Your capacity can be higher but you have to prove that your system will never push more than the authorized limit.
I actually have a three phase 150A feed but had to downgrade it to a 100A feed as otherwise they wanted to force me onto a commercial tariff. That would have completely screwed me over...

Well just received COCT bill for the month (up to 16th of October) - about the middle split for my annual estimation.

As you can see I am feeding in more than three times what I am taking at night. Obviously I am producing more than what I am feeding in as the property consumes power during the day - the feed in being the excess.
This compares well with my estimates - I should be able to get relatively close to net-zero as averaged over a solar year but probably will not quite get there unless I add a few more panels. But since I already have 42 panels on the roof it is getting a tad crowded so I would have to align additional panels facing west - a bit less efficient but not too much.
Considering this is the maximum size COCT allows for a residential installation and tariff you can see their calculations just allow net zero for this - anything smaller and its not worth your while. So the notion that COCT does not really want you to do this is a fair conclusion to make.
It took a year of fighting to get this signed off and in total it cost around half a million bucks. To be fair that includes a large battery bank and related inverters as well. Total installed inverter capacity is 30KW.

Well just received COCT bill for the month (up to 16th of October) - about the middle split for my annual estimation.

As you can see I am feeding in more than three times what I am taking at night. Obviously I am producing more than what I am feeding in as the property consumes power during the day - the feed in being the excess.
This compares well with my estimates - I should be able to get relatively close to net-zero as averaged over a solar year but probably will not quite get there unless I add a few more panels. But since I already have 42 panels on the roof it is getting a tad crowded so I would have to align additional panels facing west - a bit less efficient but not too much.
Considering this is the maximum size COCT allows for a residential installation and tariff you can see their calculations just allow net zero for this - anything smaller and its not worth your while. So the notion that COCT does not really want you to do this is a fair conclusion to make.
It took a year of fighting to get this signed off and in total it cost around half a million bucks. To be fair that includes a large battery bank and related inverters as well. Total installed inverter capacity is 30KW.

It is effectively impossible to get to net zero if you sign up to feeding in in Cape Town. Unless you use batteries to assist you during times of low or zero production. That partly defeats the object.
The problem is the vast difference between what COCT pays you for a KW/h and what you pay COCT for a KW/h - plus the increased daily charge (which you have to recover first using your measly income from COCT) plus the not insignificant cost of the bidirectional meter (about 15K in my case including installation).
Add to this the limitation of just how much you can feed in at any point in time based on the size of your connection.
If you decide to jump through the hoops and feed in legally you are best served by viewing your contribution as a "donation". Because that's exactly what it is.
I have a three phase 100A feed and am pretty much maxing it out - I may just be able to break even over a year - not counting the cost of the meter. I doubt that I will be able to get to the point were COCT would owe me. In this scenario I have not utilized by batteries (saving them for loadshedding only) and am not even thinking of the cost of panels or inverters. I have 12KW/h of panels installed and have capacity to do another 5Kw/h before hitting the limit. Might do it just for fun...
 

There has been zero communication from COCT. We will have to wait and see.
You are permitted to feed in as much as you like - subject only to the restriction on maximum power you may feed in based on size of your connection.
The limitation is monetary - so if you somehow manage to get to zero Rands as averaged over one year - you would have fed in three to four times what you actually took from the grid - slightly dependent on the size of your connection - the fixed daily charge is the same regardless of the size of your connection. If you have a single phase 65 amp feed - just forget the whole thing and just use your power yourself or start looking at using batteries.
This whole notion of using the grid as your battery - Hah ! Yeah right - it must be the Worlds most ineffective battery. You can do it if you feel your excess power is going to a "good home"...

There has been zero communication from COCT. We will have to wait and see.
You are permitted to feed in as much as you like - subject only to the restriction on maximum power you may feed in based on size of your connection.
The limitation is monetary - so if you somehow manage to get to zero Rands as averaged over one year - you would have fed in three to four times what you actually took from the grid - slightly dependent on the size of your connection - the fixed daily charge is the same regardless of the size of your connection. If you have a single phase 65 amp feed - just forget the whole thing and just use your power yourself or start looking at using batteries.
This whole notion of using the grid as your battery - Hah ! Yeah right - it must be the Worlds most ineffective battery. You can do it if you feel your excess power is going to a "good home"...

There has been zero communication from COCT. We will have to wait and see.
You are permitted to feed in as much as you like - subject only to the restriction on maximum power you may feed in based on size of your connection.
The limitation is monetary - so if you somehow manage to get to zero Rands as averaged over one year - you would have fed in three to four times what you actually took from the grid - slightly dependent on the size of your connection - the fixed daily charge is the same regardless of the size of your connection. If you have a single phase 65 amp feed - just forget the whole thing and just use your power yourself or start looking at using batteries.
This whole notion of using the grid as your battery - Hah ! Yeah right - it must be the Worlds most ineffective battery. You can do it if you feel your excess power is going to a "good home"...

It is effectively impossible to get to net zero if you sign up to feeding in in Cape Town. Unless you use batteries to assist you during times of low or zero production. That partly defeats the object.
The problem is the vast difference between what COCT pays you for a KW/h and what you pay COCT for a KW/h - plus the increased daily charge (which you have to recover first using your measly income from COCT) plus the not insignificant cost of the bidirectional meter (about 15K in my case including installation).
Add to this the limitation of just how much you can feed in at any point in time based on the size of your connection.
If you decide to jump through the hoops and feed in legally you are best served by viewing your contribution as a "donation". Because that's exactly what it is.
I have a three phase 100A feed and am pretty much maxing it out - I may just be able to break even over a year - not counting the cost of the meter. I doubt that I will be able to get to the point were COCT would owe me. In this scenario I have not utilized by batteries (saving them for loadshedding only) and am not even thinking of the cost of panels or inverters. I have 12KW/h of panels installed and have capacity to do another 5Kw/h before hitting the limit. Might do it just for fun...
 

While shopping around I noticed the Solis inverters one of the very very few that appear on COCT's infamous list with NRS-097-2017 certification.
This got me interested in the 15KW three phase model which seems OK on paper and remarkably affordable.
I have a question that appears to be partially answered by going carefully through their installation manual.
I would need to control the power during an islanding situation with the inverter connected to the output of a victron Multiplus - the latter configured to be a simple UPS, excess power from the Solis fed to the grid (if available) through the inverters transfer switch.
During grid fail the transfer switch is open and the Victron inverter does its UPS thing. This allows the Solis grid tie to continue operating. However power needs to be throttled to that required by any loads. The Victron, fitted with the PV assistant, uses frequency shifting to control a grid tie at its output (typically between 51 and 53 Hz with 53 Hz being "off"). Excess power during load dumps is simply shunted into the battery. 
So, anybody used the "Freq Derate" option selectable in the Solis setup ? It appears you can set the min/max frequency for control but the manual is a bit thin in this regard. Anybody have such a grid tie and in familiar with the settings ? Anybody have a contact to somebody knowledgeable perhaps  - not to importers that just move boxes please. 

Actually - I can answer my own question:
Solis is actually publishing the NRS-097 test results freely (Now I am impressed).
The test includes derating from 50.5Hz to 52Hz and it does it nicely and accurately according to the test results. So far so good...
 

COCT budget now includes a R0.25 "incentive" per KW/h to feed in.
Still not cost effective for a solar powered home to feed in excess power (it costs you more than you will get back for most homes). But at least a step in the right direction.
In my opinion:
1) Vast difference between what you get for a supplied KW/h vs. a KW/h used from grid. Fine, I can accept that one.
2) Around R15.000 charged to supplier for a bidirectional meter (you will never be able to amortize that cost - dead loss to the solar supplier).
3) Increased monthly fixed charge for the pleasure of supplying power (this one I do not get at all). 
Effectively this means Eskom is still favored as supplier by municipality - small scale solar supply effectively discouraged (while trying to project "green" image).
 

COCT budget now includes a R0.25 "incentive" per KW/h to feed in.
Still not cost effective for a solar powered home to feed in excess power (it costs you more than you will get back for most homes). But at least a step in the right direction.
In my opinion:
1) Vast difference between what you get for a supplied KW/h vs. a KW/h used from grid. Fine, I can accept that one.
2) Around R15.000 charged to supplier for a bidirectional meter (you will never be able to amortize that cost - dead loss to the solar supplier).
3) Increased monthly fixed charge for the pleasure of supplying power (this one I do not get at all). 
Effectively this means Eskom is still favored as supplier by municipality - small scale solar supply effectively discouraged (while trying to project "green" image).
 

COCT budget now includes a R0.25 "incentive" per KW/h to feed in.
Still not cost effective for a solar powered home to feed in excess power (it costs you more than you will get back for most homes). But at least a step in the right direction.
In my opinion:
1) Vast difference between what you get for a supplied KW/h vs. a KW/h used from grid. Fine, I can accept that one.
2) Around R15.000 charged to supplier for a bidirectional meter (you will never be able to amortize that cost - dead loss to the solar supplier).
3) Increased monthly fixed charge for the pleasure of supplying power (this one I do not get at all). 
Effectively this means Eskom is still favored as supplier by municipality - small scale solar supply effectively discouraged (while trying to project "green" image).
 

So how are you doing with your solar system during lock down ?
Perfect time for me do do what I wanted to do for some time but never had the time for. To recap - got three 5KVA multies on a three phase feed with a Solis 15KVA three phase grid tie with 10KWp of panels on the roof.
I "stole" one of our MX1 aircraft EFIS flight instruments and repurposed it a bit. This is the original prototype of the MX1 EFIS intended for low cost applications. Normally it would be fitted in an aircraft cockpit and gives you all of the primary flight information (altitude, airspeed, attitude etc), does the autopilot, navigation, engine monitoring and so forth. Pretty much an all in one glass panel. Made in Somerset West and exported around the World (one of many models we do).
Anyway, at its heart it is a STM32H7 processor with a LCD touch screen. I took the normal EFIS software and threw out a million or so lines of code to end up with a skeleton but functional system and hacked around the Solis and Victron communications buses and connected these to the MX1. The MX1 software is largely user configurable - you design your own displays from provided items so I added all the various bits from the inverters. You can do up to 9 screens - you select which screen you want to view using a rotary control. Here is my "main" screen. My system is approved to feed in so I want to see how I am doing. This is the last few days (but we had some rain and overcast so I am a bit negative on the financial side but still feed in far more than I use). Other screens are dedicated to solar production stats, daily stats etc. The graphs show a day at the moment but the system stores up to a year of data and you can scroll through each day and touch the graph to see what you were doing at that point in the day.
The MX1 is also able to control the inverters including throttle the solis if needed. Using ESS I can shunt power from one phase to another or utilize the battery in whatever way I please to optimize the system as a whole. It can also control switching units via Wifi to switch loads in and out depending on conditions. For example you could setup such to put excess power into a geyser depending on water temperature and potential PV power which the MX1 can calculate (if the Solis is throttled). These switches then work in a priority chain with power export being the last item as that is the most inefficient way to use the power (COCT pays peanuts for the power). 
Fun project so far - still work in progress of course - the more I add the more ideas I get.
Pic below shows my current main screen (Battery stuff needs work - still need to connect to BMV). Graph shows import/export of power during 24 hour day - yellow line is current time - into to the right of that is yesterday (so it always shows the last 24 hours). 

So how are you doing with your solar system during lock down ?
Perfect time for me do do what I wanted to do for some time but never had the time for. To recap - got three 5KVA multies on a three phase feed with a Solis 15KVA three phase grid tie with 10KWp of panels on the roof.
I "stole" one of our MX1 aircraft EFIS flight instruments and repurposed it a bit. This is the original prototype of the MX1 EFIS intended for low cost applications. Normally it would be fitted in an aircraft cockpit and gives you all of the primary flight information (altitude, airspeed, attitude etc), does the autopilot, navigation, engine monitoring and so forth. Pretty much an all in one glass panel. Made in Somerset West and exported around the World (one of many models we do).
Anyway, at its heart it is a STM32H7 processor with a LCD touch screen. I took the normal EFIS software and threw out a million or so lines of code to end up with a skeleton but functional system and hacked around the Solis and Victron communications buses and connected these to the MX1. The MX1 software is largely user configurable - you design your own displays from provided items so I added all the various bits from the inverters. You can do up to 9 screens - you select which screen you want to view using a rotary control. Here is my "main" screen. My system is approved to feed in so I want to see how I am doing. This is the last few days (but we had some rain and overcast so I am a bit negative on the financial side but still feed in far more than I use). Other screens are dedicated to solar production stats, daily stats etc. The graphs show a day at the moment but the system stores up to a year of data and you can scroll through each day and touch the graph to see what you were doing at that point in the day.
The MX1 is also able to control the inverters including throttle the solis if needed. Using ESS I can shunt power from one phase to another or utilize the battery in whatever way I please to optimize the system as a whole. It can also control switching units via Wifi to switch loads in and out depending on conditions. For example you could setup such to put excess power into a geyser depending on water temperature and potential PV power which the MX1 can calculate (if the Solis is throttled). These switches then work in a priority chain with power export being the last item as that is the most inefficient way to use the power (COCT pays peanuts for the power). 
Fun project so far - still work in progress of course - the more I add the more ideas I get.
Pic below shows my current main screen (Battery stuff needs work - still need to connect to BMV). Graph shows import/export of power during 24 hour day - yellow line is current time - into to the right of that is yesterday (so it always shows the last 24 hours). 

So how are you doing with your solar system during lock down ?
Perfect time for me do do what I wanted to do for some time but never had the time for. To recap - got three 5KVA multies on a three phase feed with a Solis 15KVA three phase grid tie with 10KWp of panels on the roof.
I "stole" one of our MX1 aircraft EFIS flight instruments and repurposed it a bit. This is the original prototype of the MX1 EFIS intended for low cost applications. Normally it would be fitted in an aircraft cockpit and gives you all of the primary flight information (altitude, airspeed, attitude etc), does the autopilot, navigation, engine monitoring and so forth. Pretty much an all in one glass panel. Made in Somerset West and exported around the World (one of many models we do).
Anyway, at its heart it is a STM32H7 processor with a LCD touch screen. I took the normal EFIS software and threw out a million or so lines of code to end up with a skeleton but functional system and hacked around the Solis and Victron communications buses and connected these to the MX1. The MX1 software is largely user configurable - you design your own displays from provided items so I added all the various bits from the inverters. You can do up to 9 screens - you select which screen you want to view using a rotary control. Here is my "main" screen. My system is approved to feed in so I want to see how I am doing. This is the last few days (but we had some rain and overcast so I am a bit negative on the financial side but still feed in far more than I use). Other screens are dedicated to solar production stats, daily stats etc. The graphs show a day at the moment but the system stores up to a year of data and you can scroll through each day and touch the graph to see what you were doing at that point in the day.
The MX1 is also able to control the inverters including throttle the solis if needed. Using ESS I can shunt power from one phase to another or utilize the battery in whatever way I please to optimize the system as a whole. It can also control switching units via Wifi to switch loads in and out depending on conditions. For example you could setup such to put excess power into a geyser depending on water temperature and potential PV power which the MX1 can calculate (if the Solis is throttled). These switches then work in a priority chain with power export being the last item as that is the most inefficient way to use the power (COCT pays peanuts for the power). 
Fun project so far - still work in progress of course - the more I add the more ideas I get.
Pic below shows my current main screen (Battery stuff needs work - still need to connect to BMV). Graph shows import/export of power during 24 hour day - yellow line is current time - into to the right of that is yesterday (so it always shows the last 24 hours). 

Now that I am live with a legal COCT SSEG feed and a AMI meter I have got the first account and can clarify one of the questions nobody has been able to answer at COCT.
The AMI meter is setup by COCT to do PER PHASE metering. Not NET metering (like a old fashioned three phase meter would do). The AMI meter is perfectly capable of doing NET metering but parameterised by COCT not to do so.
This means if you feed out on one phase to use the power on another phase (a very common occurrence) you will get charged full tariff for your own power while getting a credit for the same power on the feed-in tariff. In other words COCT is selling you your own power at 2.6 times the rate it is giving you (The power has just moved between phases via the utility transformer up the road - COCT did not get that power anywhere else). 
In my setup this happens usually when house loads and generation are relatively close to each other, not a problem once power generation ramps up and each phase generation exceeds the house loads.
I'll have to investigate how to work around this - have some ideas.

9 months to get this approved. The mind boggles.
Now I feel a bit better, seems I was not doing too bad...
 

COCT pays for the prepaid meter if you have no plans to feed in. The prepaid meter is unidirectional and depending on which one they give you it will either trip or happily charge you for any power you may accidentally feed in.
Bidirectional meters are only required if you want to make use of the SSEG feed in tariffs. In that case you pay for the meter and installation plus a network fee. You do not get to own the meter - you just pay for it. It's probably intended to discourage ordinary homes from wanting to feed in as it makes it effectively impossible to break even financially. I believe COCT has mostly succeeded with this. It's only idiots like me that go ahead regardless.  
As for the street - Yup. At the bottom next to the park. No.5. Was a good house and nice view on the ocean. Much further away from the sea now but still have a view of it.

AMI quote just arrived. About 15 grand.
To add to this: Also arrived has the monthly municipal electricity bill. The meter has not been read for two years (always estimates). I did not mind as the estimates where fairly close (the house has had a solar system for years so usage is very low). Today the estimated amount is just under 4000Kwh for the month. About 40x actual. Looks like Eskom needs a bailout and I'm it....
 
 

AMI quote just arrived. About 15 grand.
To add to this: Also arrived has the monthly municipal electricity bill. The meter has not been read for two years (always estimates). I did not mind as the estimates where fairly close (the house has had a solar system for years so usage is very low). Today the estimated amount is just under 4000Kwh for the month. About 40x actual. Looks like Eskom needs a bailout and I'm it....
 
 

Welcome to the club of the fleeced.
It's simple: If you have enough money to be able to have excessive PV production and are not even complaining about the pittance of the feed in credit you receive - then why should council pay for their own meter ? Surly you will have no trouble paying for it ? Council needs your money.
Consider it a donation for a good cause. That's what I did. At least it makes me feel better about it...