November 10, 20232 yr A step in the right direction; but we'll have to see if the rates they offer are reasonable; and more pressingly (since feed-ins often exclude prepaid users), if said rates allow users to offset the rather high fixed post-paid charges on CoJ. If the numbers don't balance, then it'll be a tough sell (and it'd then make sense to stick with prepaid and forgo this).
November 10, 20232 yr I don't think this will work out quite as well as everyone hopes... if there was excess generating capacity when its needed, but the rolling blackouts have been in darkness recently, here, at least and that's when Eksdom and City power would be welcoming feed-in... so, if you have excessive battery capacity and can feed in, at those times, then let the good times roll... but I suspect not...
November 10, 20232 yr CoJ should just publish the SSEG information on citypower.co.za! Has anyone emailed [email protected] and got any answers?
November 10, 20232 yr Author 4 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said: I don't think this will work out quite as well as everyone hopes... if there was excess generating capacity when its needed, but the rolling blackouts have been in darkness recently, here, at least and that's when Eksdom and City power would be welcoming feed-in... so, if you have excessive battery capacity and can feed in, at those times, then let the good times roll... but I suspect not... A lot depends on the offering, but they can't exceed the NERSA buy-back tariff. If you already have a meter that can handle the feed back, and if you're on the post-paid tariff, then you can probably reduce your bill. But you said the b... word. No way am I going to start off my evening by dumping some of what's in my battery into the grid. Sell back schemes don't make much sense when we have load shedding. Or am I missing something? Are folks who can sell back and do sell back taking big fat chunks out of the bill.
November 10, 20232 yr 35 minutes ago, Bobster. said: Or am I missing something? Are folks who can sell back and do sell back taking big fat chunks out of the bill. I doubt there are too many who sell back... maybe if there are any on the forum, they can let us know how its going and where they are located (which Province/Municipality). Everyone got all fired up about being able to sell to the grid and initially in America, Australia and Europe it looked great, for a while, then problems showed up and invariably, the production curve for solar means everyone with solar has excess from late morning until mid afternoon, possibly, but that is not when consumption would peak, I'd think and thus in Europe, you get practically nothing for you electrons during peak solar production and you have crafty fellers that can afford to invest in *LARGE* battery banks, wanting to charge when it costs next to nothing and discharge this back to the grid when electrons are priced at a premium... In various parts of America they don't want to take the feed into the grid anymore, its more effort and trouble than what its worth... I suspect even in South Africa, this will be a short lived scenario, best move is to cut the cord if you can and put the savings into a separate savings account to fund future solar replacement/expansion outlays.
November 10, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said: I suspect even in South Africa, this will be a short lived scenario, best move is to cut the cord if you can and put the savings into a separate savings account to fund future solar replacement/expansion outlays. In SA this is the goto option, self reliance if you can afford it
November 10, 20232 yr 3 minutes ago, WannabeSolarSparky said: In SA this is the goto option, self reliance if you can afford it We have been promised LS will be something of the past in 2024. Indeed selling back will be short lived.... 😜😜😜
November 11, 20232 yr Author 16 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said: Everyone got all fired up about being able to sell to the grid and initially in America, Australia and Europe it looked great, for a while, then problems showed up and invariably, the production curve for solar means everyone with solar has excess from late morning until mid afternoon, possibly, but that is not when consumption would peak, I'd think and thus in Europe, you get practically nothing for you electrons during peak solar production and you have crafty fellers that can afford to invest in *LARGE* battery banks, wanting to charge when it costs next to nothing and discharge this back to the grid when electrons are priced at a premium... In Europe & UK, friends & relatives tell me, you are not concerned about selling back, for the reasons you mention. What you do do is run as much as possible midday. Your dishwasher, your tumble drier etc. This will reduce grid load, so maybe the energy providers can charge up storage, but the primary motivation for the householder is reducing your bill. You can sell back, and you will get some sort of credit, though their prices are not fixed like ours are. In the UK, for example, you can only sell back to the energy provider you buy from, and the legislation simply says they must pay you a price greater than zero pence. If you had batteries then it might make sense to charge them for free from the sun and either use them yourself during the evening peak, or sell back at that time. Because they don't have to worry about load shedding. We do, and the batteries are how we beat it.
November 11, 20232 yr 2 hours ago, Bobster. said: What you do do is run as much as possible midday. Your dishwasher, your tumble drier etc Yup, that's what we do as well, also when the possibility exists for wanting a hot cup of something to drink at night (not this time of year), we'd boil the kettle (electrically) at 3PM or so an put the boiling water into thermos flask... no need to hit the battery to boil water at night... 2 hours ago, Bobster. said: Because they don't have to worry about load shedding. We do, and the batteries are how we beat it. and here I am getting closer to cutting the extension lead from the neighbour, then we'll see how we do, but by then, I should have around 22kWh's worth of battery on tap and our daily usage is around that number day + night and during night is probably around half, 11 to 12kWh, which should be ok for us with the battery capacity we will have...
April 17, 20242 yr I have seen that during the registration City Power implements for the owner a TOU (Time Of Use) tariff which has for 2022/2023 fixed components - Service Charge= R1462.34 p/month and Capacity Charge= R1307.39 p/month. If that's going to be the case then that is very discouraging for SSEG.. Unless I am reading wrongly the NERSA tariff. Edited April 17, 20242 yr by Rou
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