Great news for solar power users in South Africa

Eskom has made a major change to its solar power registration requirements following criticism from industry experts.

There's several reports of this. The way I read them is that SABS (who actually the custodians of the technical regulations) are changing and then Eskom will fall in line. Municipalities will have to change their bylaws but also probably can't until SABS publish revised regulations.

A test report is still required.

All this really means is that you can now deal with an electrician (but not any) instead of an engineer. You would be still be liable for the costs of bringing systems up to standard. How much is this really going to save?

Horrendous numbers were being reported a few months back. There was no breakdown, and I think it likely that the 20 grand that was being put around was part the engineer's fee, part the cost of changes the engineer insisted on before he would sign off (bringing the system in line with regulations). When my system was registered with COJ I paid the engineer (nowhere near 20K) and had to also fork out for the required warning signs.

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by Bobster.
Grammar

23 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

When my system was registered with COJ I paid the engineer (nowhere near 20K) and had to also fork out for the required warning signs.

I don't think these changes are going to put the guy who handled my registration out of business. For the fee I paid he took care of EVERYTHING. I didn't have to go to offices, wait in queues. He took care of all of that for me. I did have to sign a couple of documents he emailed me. So that sort of service does add value and some folks will consider it money well spent.

58 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

I don't think these changes are going to put the guy who handled my registration out of business. For the fee I paid he took care of EVERYTHING. I didn't have to go to offices, wait in queues. He took care of all of that for me. I did have to sign a couple of documents he emailed me. So that sort of service does add value and some folks will consider it money well spent.

Definitely. There is companies doing this for people also. If i was registering, I would pay 20k to not have to waste my time for the whole process.

A saving of over R9000 in connection costs for a typical 16KVA system is most certainly welcomed.

This will assist in making the adoption of solar more affordable and accessible.

To be honest though, the standards arent that ridiculous.

My CoCT approved system doesnt have anything majorly special for it to have been approved, but it was ridiculous that an Engineer had to come out to inspect the system as well, that was R5000 wasted in my opinion, because the gist of his report was "yeah, the electrician did a good job".

20 hours ago, Bl4d3 said:

To be honest though, the standards arent that ridiculous.

No. You install a system that can generate 230VAC and which connects to the grid and has the potential to feed back into the grid. The utility has a legitimate interest in that.

And the standards that aren't about interaction with the grid are really safety issues - fuses, disconnect for the battery and so on.

20 hours ago, Bl4d3 said:

My CoCT approved system doesnt have anything majorly special for it to have been approved, but it was ridiculous that an Engineer had to come out to inspect the system as well, that was R5000 wasted in my opinion, because the gist of his report was "yeah, the electrician did a good job".

Am I right that he had to prepare the schematic as well?

This is where the potential saving is. You call an engineer out, well he's an engineer, and he has an hourly rate that he charges, and he may well include travel time. So the supposition is that an electrician will not charge that much. He will charge, of course, and he may or may not be able to prepare the required schematic.

But the charge for the person who inspects and certifies is not the end of it. If that person is diligent then they will check that your system complies with the various regulations - and I note that there is a report that has to be submitted. If there are any shortcomings against the standards then that has to be fixed as well, and for sure that will be for your account. So if the guy who installed cut some corners then you will have to fork out more.

When my system was registered (with City of Johannesburg) the final step was a visit from the City's engineer. He could point to anything on the schematic and say "please show me this", so you had to have whoever signed off on your system handy (more hourlies), then they tested the system to see how it behaved when grid supply went down and when it came back up.

None of this is Eskom's (or City Power's) income. It's all charges between you and an engineer or an electrician.

The price you mention seems a bit on the high side. I paid 5K (plus the cost of some warning signs to inform an electrician that there are two sources of power) and that included drawings, getting the test certificates for the inverter, and all the interaction with the City so I didn't have to wait in queues, just had to sign a couple of documents mailed to me. The guy I used even arranged and then managed the appointment with the City's engineer.

Edited October 23, 2025Oct 23 by Bobster.
sppeling

21 hours ago, Bobster. said:

No. You install a system that can generate 230VAC and which connects to the grid and has the potential to feed back into the grid. The utility has a legitimate interest in that.

And the standards that aren't about interaction with the grid are really safety issues - fuses, disconnect for the battery and so on.

Am I right that he had to prepare the schematic as well?

This is where the potential saving is. You call an engineer out, well he's an engineer, and he has an hourly rate that he charges, and he may well include travel time. So the supposition is that an electrician will not charge that much. He will charge, of course, and he may or may not be able to prepare the required schematic.

But the charge for the person who inspects and certifies is not the end of it. If that person is diligent then they will check that your system complies with the various regulations - and I note that there is a report that has to be submitted. If there are any shortcomings against the standards then that has to be fixed as well, and for sure that will be for your account. So if the guy who installed cut some corners then you will have to fork out more.

When my system was registered (with City of Johannesburg) the final step was a visit from the City's engineer. He could point to anything on the schematic and say "please show me this", so you had to have whoever signed off on your system handy (more hourlies), then they tested the system to see how it behaved when grid supply went down and when it came back up.

None of this is Eskom's (or City Power's) income. It's all charges between you and an engineer or an electrician.

The price you mention seems a bit on the high side. I paid 5K (plus the cost of some warning signs to inform an electrician that there are two sources of power) and that included drawings, getting the test certificates for the inverter, and all the interaction with the City so I didn't have to wait in queues, just had to sign a couple of documents mailed to me. The guy I used even arranged and then managed the appointment with the City's engineer.

After my system was installed, the electrician ran the normal test reports and handed that with the CoC over to the engineer.

The engineer then popped by, took a couple of photos of the install, and left, spent a total of 10 minutes at my place.
A report of the install was submitted to CoCT but no schematic was submitted that I can see (I also thought one would be done), and I was not provided with one.
Nevertheless, CoCT was happy with this and sent 2 guys out to change my prepaid meter, and that was that. No inspection of my system or anything.

A day or 2 later, I received my commissioning approval.

What likely is the cause of this ease is that the inverters have to pass certain standards which is then certified by CoCT, and added to their approved list of inverters.
If the inverter installed is on this list, I assume they dont inspect the system