I have not heard of any inverter that can feed back to do it in an unsafe way. They all do switch off exporting the moment the grid is lost. Thus no unsafe operation. 

This is just a false point the munics are raising in all their Q&A. 

41 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

Wow, I have only been graced with a visit from Eskom once and that is when I logged a call for them to come out as my Neutral connection outside the property was loose and I therefore did not have any power.

I have had several visits, as I've said. They may have turned up at other times when nobody is home. I have never minded, the guy is just doing his job. They usually go to the meter box, check that the seal is intact and that there's no extra wiring. They always take a photo of the meter. Generally these are contractors, and so they have to present the picture to show that they were there and then they get paid.

41 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

 

I once messed up and thought I had more time to pay my Eskom bill, they cut me off. Nobody came to visit me, nobody even gave me a call.

I had to call and find out WTF is happening and then when double checking my invoice noticed it was a fault of my own.

 

Honestly, if people showed up at my house claiming to be from Eskom and stating they want to check my equipment I would be very hesitant and probably not provide them with access as there are soo many scams now a days and how would I know they are actual Eskom employees and not trying to gain access to my property to rob me?

One thing City Power have been good with is publishing information showing how you can identify one of their staff or contractors. They also don't mind if you call them and ask for verification. My housekeeper has done that before: Asked them to put their City Power ID card through the post box, then called City Power and checked. 

It is a risk, you're right, but it can be addressed via communication. 

I find people's attitudes quite unhelpful. I am famous where I live for never having problems with the municipality (or with Telkom for that matter), but recently we had an information session with City Power at our local recreation center, and I was quite taken aback at how some folks feel they are entitled to talk to municipal employees, and how uninformed they were. Oh... and how they all happen to be or know a retired engineer.

41 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

 

@Bobster. Please do keep us updated on the progress and how it all turns out. What sort of fees are involved in this process?

I just confirmed the fee my installer is charging. Assuming it's their system, and nobody has changed the wiring, it is 5K including drawings, submitting to the utility (they don't just have City Power customers) and following up until the registration certificate is issued.

At this point some folks might rise an eyebrow, but I've seen similar processes before. I remember hiring a local company to get ownership of a car off of my name. I met with them, they gave me a form to fill in. The form said that the current registered owner of the vehicle had to present in person and could not send a proxy. So I said "this doesn't look like it's going to save me any time and trouble". The guy says "please take that form home and complete it. Then wait for me on Tuesday morning. DO NOT enter the building. DO NOT join any queue." When he arrives he says "follow me" and we waltz right past everybody and into some office. The guy says "OK... the owner is here. You see him?" The gentleman behind the desk agreed that he has seen me. Then I get told, you can go now. And that was it. NATIS documents were provided the next day. So it's the old thing of what you know and WHO you know.

Edited December 18, 20232 yr by Bobster.

3 hours ago, Douw G. Gerber said:

My panels are not visible at all - except from space 🙂  

Some places are just using drones to capture footage. Even if allowed teenagers can do it. 

Amazing to see PV systems on Google maps where one can even get dimensions of roofs for planning. 

3 hours ago, Douw G. Gerber said:

My panels are not visible at all - except from space 🙂  I will hold out on this till the very end.  I do still buy electricity every month but it is about 50-60% less than it used to be.

COCT are using drones to pin point properties with panels. I think Google are doing the same. They certainly have cars with cameras driving around to get some of the data they show on maps.

1 minute ago, Bobster. said:

I think Google are doing the same.

I mean using drones. They couldn't care less if you have panels or not, but using Google maps you can discover all sorts of interesting things, like which of your neighbours have green pools.

I registered my system with COJ through a third party. Initial approval went fine, despite me being on a prepaid meter. Then a City Power person came to do a basic inspection and while everything was fine, the person indicator COJ was no longer giving final approval for systems on prepaid meter due to "technical" issues they were experiencing. That was somewhat disappointing but two days later I received the full/final approval letter from COJ anyway. So yeah, if they don't know what is going on, I don't know how they expect their customers to.

Edited December 21, 20232 yr by AlexTZA

On 2023/12/18 at 3:47 PM, Bobster. said:

I have had several visits, as I've said. They may have turned up at other times when nobody is home. I have never minded, the guy is just doing his job. They usually go to the meter box, check that the seal is intact and that there's no extra wiring. They always take a photo of the meter. Generally these are contractors, and so they have to present the picture to show that they were there and then they get paid.

One thing City Power have been good with is publishing information showing how you can identify one of their staff or contractors. They also don't mind if you call them and ask for verification. My housekeeper has done that before: Asked them to put their City Power ID card through the post box, then called City Power and checked. 

It is a risk, you're right, but it can be addressed via communication. 

I find people's attitudes quite unhelpful. I am famous where I live for never having problems with the municipality (or with Telkom for that matter), but recently we had an information session with City Power at our local recreation center, and I was quite taken aback at how some folks feel they are entitled to talk to municipal employees, and how uninformed they were. Oh... and how they all happen to be or know a retired engineer.

I just confirmed the fee my installer is charging. Assuming it's their system, and nobody has changed the wiring, it is 5K including drawings, submitting to the utility (they don't just have City Power customers) and following up until the registration certificate is issued.

At this point some folks might rise an eyebrow, but I've seen similar processes before. I remember hiring a local company to get ownership of a car off of my name. I met with them, they gave me a form to fill in. The form said that the current registered owner of the vehicle had to present in person and could not send a proxy. So I said "this doesn't look like it's going to save me any time and trouble". The guy says "please take that form home and complete it. Then wait for me on Tuesday morning. DO NOT enter the building. DO NOT join any queue." When he arrives he says "follow me" and we waltz right past everybody and into some office. The guy says "OK... the owner is here. You see him?" The gentleman behind the desk agreed that he has seen me. Then I get told, you can go now. And that was it. NATIS documents were provided the next day. So it's the old thing of what you know and WHO you know.

I paid R5000 to my installer in Cape Town for the same, so at least the rate seems to compare.  Engineering sign off was another R2500 on top of that.

On 2023/12/18 at 3:47 PM, Bobster. said:

 NOT join any queue." When he arrives he says "follow me" and we waltz right past everybody and into some office. The guy says "OK... the owner is here. You see him?" The gentleman behind the desk agreed that he has seen me. Then I get told, you can go now. And that was it. NATIS documents were provided the next day. So it's the old thing of what you know and WHO you know.

So CoJ people must find this guy who can bypass the queue and pass a commission to the GENTLEMAN behind the desk at the licensing department. 

During the drivers license problem there were a few of these gentlemen asking about R800 each to do things from the inside. Some even took it home for collection. 

On 2023/12/21 at 4:54 PM, Scorp007 said:

So CoJ people must find this guy who can bypass the queue and pass a commission to the GENTLEMAN behind the desk at the licensing department. 

During the drivers license problem there were a few of these gentlemen asking about R800 each to do things from the inside. Some even took it home for collection. 

And people will complain about corruption yet still do this nonsense

On 2023/12/18 at 4:29 PM, Bobster. said:

COCT are using drones to pin point properties with panels. I think Google are doing the same. They certainly have cars with cameras driving around to get some of the data they show on maps.

 

CoCT have current and historic aerial photos : https://citymaps.capetown.gov.za/EGISViewer/

 With little effort, machine learning imagery tools (eg Computer Vision) can easily extract the delta on a property to confidently pick out unauthorised panel installations.

Example from a neighbour: March, 2021 vs Jan, 2020.








 

On 2023/12/22 at 5:01 PM, madness_za said:

And people will complain about corruption yet still do this nonsense

The case I described wasn't corruption as far as I could see. It was the letter of the law. The laws says I have to be present and I was. For maybe a minute, but I was there. 

On 2023/12/21 at 4:54 PM, Scorp007 said:

So CoJ people must find this guy who can bypass the queue and pass a commission to the GENTLEMAN behind the desk at the licensing department. 

During the drivers license problem there were a few of these gentlemen asking about R800 each to do things from the inside. Some even took it home for collection. 

I dealt with a company who has offices close to me. They are not municipal officers, they are just people who understand all the processes around vehicle licensing (not driver licensing). 

It does seem to me that really the processes are designed to accommodate these intermediaries. Promotes small business and takes some load off of the municipality.

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

I dealt with a company who has offices close to me. They are not municipal officers, they are just people who understand all the processes around vehicle licensing (not driver licensing). 

It does seem to me that really the processes are designed to accommodate these intermediaries. Promotes small business and takes some load off of the municipality.

May be the way you explain it. 

I think something like this for each extra link we promote income for someone and the cost go up and also the last guy that arranges the final transaction gets something extra on top of a normal salary. 

The last link still needs to do the work so it does not remove any load the way I understand it. 

One can perhaps compare it to the eye test where the equipment is not in working order so one must get it done privately. But taxes were used to buy the equipment in the 1st place? 

14 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

May be the way you explain it. 

I think something like this for each extra link we promote income for someone and the cost go up and also the last guy that arranges the final transaction gets something extra on top of a normal salary. 

The last link still needs to do the work so it does not remove any load the way I understand it. 

One can perhaps compare it to the eye test where the equipment is not in working order so one must get it done privately. But taxes were used to buy the equipment in the 1st place? 

The proposition in this case is quite clear. These guys understand all the processes around vehicle registration, and what they charge you for is doing it faster than you could if you did it yourself. You, of course, retain that option. If they'd had put another zero on the right of their fee I'd have done it myself. As it was I was prepared to pay the money to get it done simply and quickly (for me) with a minimum of standing in queues. And I don't think there's any more to it than that. 

Malfeasance certainly goes on, and with some surprising participants. I recall selling a house. Now, when you sell you have to settle all your municipal accounts. That's fine that far. But an old account, for a meter that was not on my property, for a three phase supply that I didn't have, was produced and I was told I had to pay it. It was donkey's years old, with interest accruing - it was around 130K. And because I queried it instead of just paying up, the sale was being held up.

Next thing I know my conveyancer calls me to say that he is in an office at the municipal offices, talking to a man whose name he won't reveal. He says that if I go to that office tomorrow morning, with an envelope containing 5 grand in cash, I will find a man who will not be wearing a name badge and who can make this problem go away. He tells me that he is just trying to do his valued client a favour, intervening to speed up a tricky transfer. 

I was pretty damn cross with that lawyer, and told him that whatever he does, there has to be a proper, auditable paper trail (I later found out he was in hot water for misuse of trust funds and for advising clients to invest in a business which was paying him kick backs and which he knew was losing money).

I also decided to register the contested account on line, using another email address, so that I could keep an eye on it via the City's e-billing system.

Then the account got linked to some other address and the property was transferred. I resolved to never deal with this lawyer again and contacted the bar association. I never went to that office and handed over 5 grand in cash.

Then a few months later I get a call from the new owners saying I was supposed to have finalised all the municipal accounts, and now they were getting hit with old demands. I logged in to e-billing, and there was that account again, back to the address for the property I'd sold. 

Eish!

The second incident I've described stinks to high heaven. The first one just smells like somebody providing a value add service.

Edited December 31, 20232 yr by Bobster.

And this thread is now way off topic. Once the registration process kicks off in the new year, I'll start a new thread.

OK... so two things happened today.

1) City Power were here to replace my meter. I had requested this because the old one had failed. Their first response was to do a "temporary restoration" (read "bypass the meter"). The second part happened today. New meter installed, linked to the City's systems, and I can purchase and load units (and I have done that). The replacement pre-paid units come with 30kWh pre-loaded.

2) I got a call from the engineering company who are going to do the SSEG registration. They confirmed the fee. They pointed out that 
* whether or not I remain on pre-paid is between me and the City and they don't involve themselves in that. They have customers who are registered and have stayed on pre-paid, but they believe that this is currently a loophole in the regulations that the City is working to close.
* they don't make any changes to the system. If they see anything that is non compliant, they report to you, and you have to get somebody to make good. Then they carry on the registration process. 
* so they handle the registration and everything that goes with that. They file all the paperwork. I don't have to stand in any queues FOR REGISTRATION.

Edited January 17, 20242 yr by Bobster.
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