My mom lives in an apartment building in Faerie Glen. In the last few years there were 3 multiday outages totaling 18 days in addition to load shedding. Residents desperately wants a backup power supply.

The trustees are meeting later is this week. Here are some of the ideas I want to propose, but to have any chance, I'll need concrete examples of success stories in South Africa:

A. Solar - Because it's so capital intensive, the resource needs to be utilized nearly every day of the year. Given how expensive storage is, it's best to consume the electricity as it's being produced. I see two options:

(i) Have smart meters that enforces a quota for very apartment. For example x kWh during the day and y kWh during the night

(ii) Have smart switches that switch apartments (or devices) between solar and grid electricity so as to use the generated electricity

B. Diesel generator

(Preferably the backup power source should be large enough to power the elevator for short periods of time)

I see 3 ways of distributing the electricity:

1. Through the wires that currently provides grid power to the apartments. The municipality supplies power to 3 cabinets which contains the 45 meters. I guess it's impossible to obtain permission to modify these cabinets.

2. Installing a set of parallel cables, similar to how UPS power is distributed in a large office building. This may be possible to connect all 45 apartments with only 450 meter of cables and ducting.

3. The body corporate already supplies power to 15 plugs spaced throughout the building. We could manufacture 15 "smart" extension cables that can be deployed during these multiday outages to provide each apartment with one operation socket / Janus coupler. Each extension cable would have 4 x 4 PVC box that houses a 5 A breaker and 3 electricity meters e.g. Sonoff Powr. Given that these extension cables are not permanently fixed to the building, there is no need for a modified CoC.

Any thoughts ?

 

Edited January 10, 20223 yr by Nic Roets

Sectional title, like a block of flats where the roof (or any suitable panel placement) is not dedicated to each section, is problematic, because how do you ensure that each owner gets their fair share of the electricity generated? Also, how do you share it -- by unit or by Participation Quota? 

I think that it has a chance to work if it's only for use on the common property. Lights, gate motors, cameras, electric fences, elevators, security systems, clubhouse, squash courts, communal showers etc. would all benefit from it pretty much easily, and one could maybe even introduce communal plugs for charging laptops, tablets and cellphones. But other than  that, it's quite problematic and complex to administer, and the BC would have to register as an IPP. And then the technical side of how to distribute it evenly. And admin issues again when people dispute their bills. 

There are sectional title complexes where every section has a discrete unit with a roof, in that case it's pretty easy, if the BC takes a resolution to allow solar installs on each section's individual roof. But the BC is typically responsible for roof maintenance, so members may have to agree to then maintain the roof if they opt for solar. All of this is possible if sections all have dedicated roof.

But in a block of flats, allowing section owners to purchase and use for their own consumption may be asking for trouble.

Edited January 10, 20223 yr by YellowTapemeasure

In this case, the electricity in the garages already comes from a DB box belonging to the BC. So there is already a precedent for the BC distributing power to exclusive use areas. It is not currently billed.

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In this case allowing individual owners to install solar panels on the roof will be a recipe for disaster.

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How are the generators in Midstream Retirement village managed ?

 

Edited January 10, 20223 yr by Nic Roets

2 minutes ago, Nic Roets said:

In this case, the electricity in the garages already comes from a DB box belonging to the BC. So there is already a precedent for the BC distributing power to exclusive use areas. It is not currently billed.

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I agree that allowing individual owners to install solar panels on the roof is a recipe for disaster.

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How are the generators in Midstream Retirement village managed ?

 

Exclusive use areas are interesting, and can work around, AFAIK one just need to change the Management Rules (which is a PITA, requires unanimous approval). Exclusive Use areas are also usually maintained by the BC too, unless the Management Rules state otherwise.

It is still open to abuse though, I know of a ST complex where electricity to the garages is supplied from the Common Property, yet on the sectional title plan the garage is denoted as part of a section. There's too much abuse with that, one guy had a crypto-mining rig inside, another stored illicit abalone in deepfreezes, yet another was renting his garage as a dwelling for a family. Fortunately I sold there 😎

I explained wrong: Here the garages are units that can be sold separately from the apartments.

Fortunately the "free" electricity in the garages hasn't been abused too much here. Only isolated incidents of residents with freezers.

Most of the residents of this building are decent people. Levies in arrears are negligible.

If we run a diesel generator only during outages, the administrative overhead related to billing may not be worth the effort.

Edited January 10, 20223 yr by Nic Roets

I'm housed in a similar set up. The best and easiest solution is for each individual and at their cost to get a small installation that would then power lights and select plug points, like a Sukam 3kva. This is powered off the grid and when you have a blackout, the Sukam inverter then runs individual households. Also trying to get something to go into individual flats/apartments has the problem that one may put a kettle or iron on that outlet.

For communal areas like hallways, security lights, security cameras, communal electric gate, I would propose a solar system with panels being put in a communal location, hopefully you have a communal garden or even a 3kva system (Sukam) or any other that powers off the grid and batteries are located in the main room where the meters are for the individual flats/apartments. I would not recommend a generator and would just as residents to be mindful of the Eskom schedule to avoid the elevator(s).

Interesting, there seems to be ways to do it.