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Posted

HI all,

I'm in the solar journey and have my kit installed and registered with COCT. Very happy so far.

My current setup is

  • 8kw Sunsynk Inverter
  • 3x Pylontech US3000c
  • 16x Canadian Solar 420 Poly's
  • Solar-Assistant Monitoring

My question is:

Has anyone successfully registered with COCT for feeding back into the grid?

  • What was the process like?
  • Upfront costs?
  • Do you make money back or credits?
  • Is it worth it?
  • Do the credits expire monthly or annually?

Thanks,

Julius

Posted

The short answer is its not feasible and COCT makes it as unappealing as possible. I think someone did the math a while ago and it was something like a minimum of 20kw PV array you would require to make it feasible. Ontop of that you need to be a net consumer meaning a customer must over a period of a year import (purchase) more energy than he/she exports (puts back into the municipal electrical grid) . 

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 2022/05/18 at 12:21 PM, Nexuss said:

The short answer is its not feasible and COCT makes it as unappealing as possible. I think someone did the math a while ago and it was something like a minimum of 20kw PV array you would require to make it feasible. Ontop of that you need to be a net consumer meaning a customer must over a period of a year import (purchase) more energy than he/she exports (puts back into the municipal electrical grid) . 

Thanks very much for the info. I also thought this was the case. I wanted to check if I was misinterpreting the info I was getting. 

Until COCT adopts a more European way of thinking to buying back electricity in going to stay just a self consumer. 

Posted

I think many misinterpret these policies. I think that most municipalities charge an implementation fee and a monthly admin fee. For every kw you feedback you may consume that later. It is the surplus fed back that has a low tarif recreates administrative issues.

See my post here...

 

 

Posted
26 minutes ago, Pieter Lourens said:

I think many misinterpret these policies. I think that most municipalities charge an implementation fee and a monthly admin fee. For every kw you feedback you may consume that later. It is the surplus fed back that has a low tarif recreates administrative issues.

See my post here...

 

 

AFAIK in PE you get the same rate for feeding back as what you use. In George you have to fit a bi-directional meter at own cost. You are then not paid for what you feed back but can use it back. Not sure about the admin fee. You then end up paying about 8c a unit more for actual consumption. Still a good deal than having panels not producing when low load during the day and battery full.

Posted

Our govt is missing a huge opportunity. We are faced with increased load shedding. Normal people, like us, can contribute immensely if they just change policies to make it easy and effortless to register a solar system and allow feedback to the grid. Instead of them spending billions to build new power stations (which they still have to do btw) and waiting 10-15 years for full production, domestic solar systems are already online and ready to feed-in to the grid.

There are 1000's of installations that are not permitted to feed-in. Look at the US for instance, they get govt rebate of up to 30% of their cost if they install a system and it is signed off. And then on top of it a lot of power companies give them a 1:1 tariff, meaning whatever they feed-in they can use again.

I saw that Dear South Africa sent an email comms which indicates that the govt is exploring urgent ways of easing load shedding. Well, the solution is already at their disposal... Just make it easy for people to register their systems and feed-in and GIVE INCENTIVES to those that do...

Our municipality has been "busy" drafting PV regulations for the past 10 years and still nothing on the table, but we have some of the most expensive electricity in the region... Govt policies are full of red tape which put a spanner in the wheels of progress.

Posted (edited)
On 2022/05/18 at 12:21 PM, Nexuss said:

The short answer is its not feasible and COCT makes it as unappealing as possible. I think someone did the math a while ago and it was something like a minimum of 20kw PV array you would require to make it feasible. Ontop of that you need to be a net consumer meaning a customer must over a period of a year import (purchase) more energy than he/she exports (puts back into the municipal electrical grid) . 

Hopefully that will change in the future.

image.jpeg.1c4edbc3d0c9aefbcba1e5dadcef684c.jpeg

 

Apologies it is a screenshot, I can't find the direct reply link.

 

Edit: found it.

 

Edited by Tinuva
Posted

We know that Eskom's load is greatest from about 17:00 to 21:00. So buying excess solar isn't going to solve that problem for them unless they have a way to concentrate it and store it.

This is where things are different in CT. CT has Steenbras, and so they can use all the spare PV (more in the afternoons when the batteries in our houses are charged) to pump water up the hill to Steenbras for release during peak hours.

Which is to say that COCT do have a way to store that power for later use when they really need it.

Jhb, for example, can't do that. Our geography is all wrong. Even if we had the money we couldn't build a Steenbras. COCT has the magic combination of a large city close to tall mountains.

I don't believe that Jhb make reselling attractive to folks like me with panels on their roofs. They could improve their offering and it might save some folks money, but I don't see it solving their greater power supply problems.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

We know that Eskom's load is greatest from about 17:00 to 21:00. So buying excess solar isn't going to solve that problem for them unless they have a way to concentrate it and store it.

This is where things are different in CT. CT has Steenbras, and so they can use all the spare PV (more in the afternoons when the batteries in our houses are charged) to pump water up the hill to Steenbras for release during peak hours.

Which is to say that COCT do have a way to store that power for later use when they really need it.

Jhb, for example, can't do that. Our geography is all wrong. Even if we had the money we couldn't build a Steenbras. COCT has the magic combination of a large city close to tall mountains.

I don't believe that Jhb make reselling attractive to folks like me with panels on their roofs. They could improve their offering and it might save some folks money, but I don't see it solving their greater power supply problems.

During the load shedding this past weeks, my power has mostly been off 08h00-10h30 and in the afternoon either 12h00-14h30 or 14h00-16h30. So this means that they do have shortages during the daytime as well. Residential solar PV may not help after hours, but there is definitely a shortage during sun hours as well.

Posted
1 hour ago, Induna said:

During the load shedding this past weeks, my power has mostly been off 08h00-10h30 and in the afternoon either 12h00-14h30 or 14h00-16h30. So this means that they do have shortages during the daytime as well. Residential solar PV may not help after hours, but there is definitely a shortage during sun hours as well.

Well right now they don't have enough full stop. So, yes, maybe there's something to be gained in the short run. But remember when they introduced stage 6, that kicked in in the early evening. That will remain their time of greatest demand, and in most cases our PV systems aren't going to help them with that.
 

Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

Well right now they don't have enough full stop. So, yes, maybe there's something to be gained in the short run. But remember when they introduced stage 6, that kicked in in the early evening. That will remain their time of greatest demand, and in most cases our PV systems aren't going to help them with that.
 

To carry on carrying on, the key must be storage. I pointed out how COCT could use the extra PV in the early afternoon. In Australia, with subsidies and attractive buy-back tariffs, they ran into problems with too much power on the grid at times when they could not use it.

I think maybe being able to send power east or west (but mostly, I'm thinking, east) also makes a difference. In Europe countries export to each other. So Spain, say, could be selling their afternoon excess to Poland, where the evening peak demand is kicking in.
 

Edited by Bobster.
Nonsensical assertion removed
Posted
9 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

To carry on carrying on, the key must be storage. I pointed out how COCT could use the extra PV in the early afternoon. In Australia, with subsidies and attractive buy-back tariffs, they ran into problems with too much power on the grid at times when they could not use it.

At the moment we don't have enough generation to keep the lights on while the sun is shining. Never mind our pumped storage. If buying solar means we can mitigate some of our current issues - even if that just means no load shedding when the sun shines, it will be a major win.

Posted
31 minutes ago, P1000 said:

At the moment we don't have enough generation to keep the lights on while the sun is shining. Never mind our pumped storage. If buying solar means we can mitigate some of our current issues - even if that just means no load shedding when the sun shines, it will be a major win.

Agreed. But it would require a far greater number of installs than we presently have, at least in my neck of the woods. My system keeps my house running and charges my batteries. I don't have a lot left to export. Maybe a couple of kw/h on a sunny day, after midday.

And would grid-tied systems (the cheapest) solve our problem? They don't generate when the grid is down.

So I think we can get too easily seduced by a vision of home PV systems even taking the sting out of load shedding.

Yours pessimistically...
 

Posted

COCT buy your electricity at the same unit prize that they buy it from Eskom. COCT needs to have a electrical network in place that can handle the load if the PV does not work for example if there a a month of very cloudy weather PV would be of no advantage to City of Cape Town.

 

 

  • 6 months later...
Posted

Without doing the math, I realised right in the beginning that this was a non starter in S.A.

What's more the CTC always needs money and they will just increased the fixed portion of your monthly bill in any event, their reasoning is that it costs them to maintain the grid and they need to recover that.

I have a R200 000 investment in a PV system, I would also love to recover some🤣

Just a final thing, It took me 6 month to get my system approved and registered and I actually still do not have the approval document in hand!

The original installer(s) could not do the registration between two of them and after some discussion returned what I paid them to enable me to get the services of more qualified people.

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