I have had quite a few people asking: "Should I do net metering (or exporting) to City of Cape Town?" 

To answer this question I have done a quick analysis on the pricing, costs and exports.

Note a few assumptions on the below:

1. The Cost of installing the Net Metering Meter is NOT INCLUDED (this is around R8k to R12k)

2. Escalation of electricity price is capped at a 5% rate (after 2020, the 2019/2020 increase used)

3. No Escalation on the Feed-In Tariff (The possible increase in FIT is offset by the reduced Electricity Cap rate, also note the new changes to the SSEG rates by City of Cape Town [very much reduced])

4. Home usage is more that 1000units(kWh) per month, however should this be less than 1000kWh then the excess energy is sold to Cape Town (or lost if not exporting)

5. Access Fee per year (currently 248p/m on the 2019/2020 budget), changes by 5% annually

Then, two options are given side by side, this is depending on how CoCT will be implementing the fee structure (sorry, there is no clarity on this, perhaps someone can assist?)

We have two charges on for Home Users, which is a R160(+-) "Network Access and Administration Charge" and the other is the SSEG "Service Charge" R248.32. Option 2 will be WITHOUT the Home User Charge, option 1 is with both (most likely scenario).

It can be seen from the graphs over a period of a few years that Exporting to the City will REDUCE your saving vs. just tossing the energy in the bin (figuratively speaking, if you do it literally you might have to pay for the fire department to come out...).

OPTION 2: Only the Service Charge (I like being optimistic):

 

 

 

Very interesting, I believe you save in one form or the other though, by reducing the load on eskom and in doing so helping the economy. It would be nice if they a least make it break even if you sell back as apposed to dumping it. 

I don't think you will be charged both charges - you are either Home User @ R160pm or SSEG User @R248pm from 1. July.

16 hours ago, Rautenk said:

The Cost of installing the Net Metering Meter is NOT INCLUDED (this is around R8k to R12k)

@RautenkCan you add this in 2 graphs (install + p/m costs) showing the true cost over 5 years in another graph?

As posted on the other thread. I sent this email to the DA's HO - if more of us send it to our local DA members, maybe we get something going, for as @stoic says, it is about helping, not milking.

...

The next level is when the DA in Cpt has been successful in their court application, to buy power locally and not only from Eskom.

At that time I hope CoCT will consider the following:
1)    CoCT installs at their cost a bi-directional meter.
1.a)    Meter stays CoCT property.
1.b)    With the user undertaking to give “free of charge” a certain amount of kwh per annum back to CoCT to use / sell as they see fit.
1.b.i)    To off-set the meter costs.
1.b.ii)    To “pay” for the additional requirements ito the grid.
2)    The grid connection fees stay at the current rates and are not increased to the higher per day charge.
3)    CoCT buying power from home users at Eskom rates excl VAT for all additional power the home user feeds back to CoCT.

By engaging homeowners to sell power to CoCT I believe CoCT will move forward in leaps and bounds to become a greener city with more people having access to free electricity, at no additional capital costs or risk to CoCT.

In other words, make it easy and reasonable for all home users to go solar allowing them to sell their oversupply of power back to CoCT, for in solar, there is always a oversupply on sunny days.

There are complications yes, but we are South African’s. We always find a solution to our collective problems.

Where can I download the 2019-2020 budget ?

I ca only find the draft budget where the SSEG charge of R248 is listed PER DAY

3 hours ago, The Bulldog said:

I ca only find the draft budget where the SSEG charge of R248 is listed PER DAY

@The Bulldog,Jip, that is the one... Someone I know spoke to the guy that submitted it and they acknowledge that it was a printing error! Its per month (or so they say, we would see in the final tariff)

19 hours ago, PeterP said:

I don't think you will be charged both charges - you are either Home User @ R160pm or SSEG User @R248pm from 1. July.

I agree, but would like to know that with 100% certainty (thus putting the two options on the table)

9 hours ago, flamegrilled said:

Can you add this in 2 graphs (install + p/m costs) showing the true cost over 5 years in another graph?

@flamegrilled, I thought of it but how would it be best put in? Trying to keep it simple, would you go for a negative saving at the start or would you want to take the approach of wirting off the cost over 5 years (first option would be accurate, if you want to do it over 5 years then interest should start coming in).

My intention here is to show that should you have two exact same systems (and had the meter installed already), then the discrepancy becomes more prominent over time. Note this is only 4 years, so the longer (say 15 years) you go along the worse it becomes! 

I am more than happy to upload the base document if someone wants to play around with it and make more useful figures.

The data used is as follows:

1. My own home utility bill per month

2. PVSyst estimations of monthly energy generation for a 2.5kW system (sized specifically so that I have 100% utilisation), also the system has less than optimal placement

3. Energy loss of 0.05% per year (this is not 100% correct as I actually used nicely oversized DC component - and due to West facing placement for 1 string)

 

On 2019/04/30 at 9:14 AM, The Terrible Triplett said:

The next level is when the DA in Cpt has been successful in their court application, to buy power locally and not only from Eskom.

At that time I hope CoCT will consider the following:
1)    CoCT installs at their cost a bi-directional meter.
1.a)    Meter stays CoCT property.
1.b)    With the user undertaking to give “free of charge” a certain amount of kwh per annum back to CoCT to use / sell as they see fit.
1.b.i)    To off-set the meter costs.
1.b.ii)    To “pay” for the additional requirements ito the grid.
2)    The grid connection fees stay at the current rates and are not increased to the higher per day charge.
3)    CoCT buying power from home users at Eskom rates excl VAT for all additional power the home user feeds back to CoCT.

By engaging homeowners to sell power to CoCT I believe CoCT will move forward in leaps and bounds to become a greener city with more people having access to free electricity, at no additional capital costs or risk to CoCT.

In other words, make it easy and reasonable for all home users to go solar allowing them to sell their oversupply of power back to CoCT, for in solar, there is always a oversupply on sunny days.

There are complications yes, but we are South African’s. We always find a solution to our collective problems.

Have just fired off an email to my ward councillor with this text and with attribution.

Thanks @The Terrible Triplett, your daughter is right, and the words are great...

@Rautenk thing is, this should be a no-brainer. 

You shouldn't have to sit down with Excel and work out at which point you will essentially break even given their rules, the size of your array / inverter / main breaker or the amount of electricity you use.

If CoCT is serious about being green you wouldn't have to.  Thing is, CoCT has other considerations, which they currently consider more important it would appear, except at Wind / Solar farm level.  And there-in lies the rub.

@The Terrible Triplett 4) should be the removal of the "you can't feed back more than you use annually" rule.

4 hours ago, IdlePhaedrus said:

4) should be the removal of the "you can't feed back more than you use annually" rule.

By mentioning the court case and saying we sell back our over supply, it implies that.

But, it would have been better to use the words ... 

On 2019/04/30 at 7:13 AM, flamegrilled said:

@RautenkCan you add this in 2 graphs (install + p/m costs) showing the true cost over 5 years in another graph?

I think the meter costs should be part of the installation costs of the system, as the CoC and engineering costs are.

my smart meter was for my account when i built the new place and before they thought of ripping us a new one....Cost of the meter was R4500 plus the street box R1000 in front of my home.....

Anybody have a definite answer on how COCT applies net metering on three phase systems ? I am aware a four quadrant AMI meter gets installed but how is the accounting set up ?

Are you charged/credited for the sum of the three phases or will the meter be set up to account per phase ?

Let's say your system is doing this (negative is feeding to grid):

P1 = -1000W
P2 = 500W
P3 = 500W

So while net power is exactly zero, is COCT going to charge the consumption tariff for 2x500W while crediting 1x1000W on the feed in tariff ? Or will the net charge be zero in this case ?

Can't seem to get any answer to this - not having any knowledge about the backend of AMI metering. 

7 minutes ago, The Bulldog said:

So while net power is exactly zero, is COCT going to charge the consumption tariff for 2x500W while crediting 1x1000W on the feed in tariff ? Or will the net charge be zero in this case

@RautenkI think this would be another valid question to table at the meeting with Ryno.

18 hours ago, The Bulldog said:

So while net power is exactly zero, is COCT going to charge the consumption tariff for 2x500W while crediting 1x1000W on the feed in tariff ? Or will the net charge be zero in this case ?

Most countries charge for the total over the three. But this remains a good question, because some (New Zealand!) charge per phase.

It's also the content of a braaivleis-fire story. I once had an issue with someone getting weird numbers on a 3-phase system, and we discovered that the Carlo Gavazzi EM24 aggregates the energy total over all three phases, whereas the ET340 simple adds up the individual phases and therefore has a useless total energy measurement...

I can only comment on utility experience, so best add tgis to the list of questions. 

@Fuenkli, I hope youbare making a list!

Normally the way it is dealt with is to use the total aggregate for the 3phases. So you should actually get a zero on the meter. Additionally if you have massive phase imbalances you get fined... That's why NRS and CoCT will demand that you do phase balancing if you want to go higher than 4.6kVA (as fining at residential level is not done at the moment for Power Factor or causing imbalances on the system) 

I can only comment on utility experience, so best add tgis to the list of questions. 

@Fuenkli, I hope youbare making a list!

Normally the way it is dealt with is to use the total aggregate for the 3phases. So you should actually get a zero on the meter. Additionally if you have massive phase imbalances you get fined... That's why NRS and CoCT will demand that you do phase balancing if you want to go higher than 4.6kVA (as fining at residential level is not done at the moment for Power Factor or causing imbalances on the system)