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Electricity-self generation


Chloe

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Hi all, I would be the first to admit I do not pay much attention to what our President says but I recently came across one of his resent newsletters that tickled my fancy in particular this section:

"In an effort to facilitate electricity self-generation and as part of the reform process, we have removed the licensing requirement for self-generation projects under 1 MW.  So far 156 self-generation facilities under 1 MW have been registered, with a total installed capacity of 72 MW."

http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/newsletters/desk-president%2C-monday%2C-28-september-2020

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7 hours ago, Chloe said:

we have removed the licensing requirement for self-generation projects under 1 MW.

Looks like eventually a step in the right direction no licenses hopefully also means no bribes need to be paid. There is mention of a “roadmap for our energy sector for the next decade” 

Looks like we won’t be packing our inverters away soon🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2020/10/16 at 10:58 AM, Muchachos said:

It would be nice to the Tax Credit for residential installations.

It will be nice. 

Here are some other things we have to appreciate:

  • Even though on an affordability index which make solar out of reach for many, we in South Africa have very affordable solar prices.
    • Compare the price to the US and we have 3 times lower prices.
    • So even in the US, where they get a rebate, our prices is still lower.
    • The rebate thing in US is also changing quickly and differ from state to state.
  • It would have been nice if certain sustainability things where VAT exempted. (solar systems and components, greywater systems, rainharvest systems and components, etc)

Other

  • I agree with that the licensing thing is BS. Electricity compliance should the only paperwork.
  • The government can't claim the sun. Leave me alone 🙂
    • If it was the SABC, they would have force us to have a yearly license for consumption from the sun. (sun-tan-tax) 

 

But, I guess, all of the above is only possible in a well run government, which unfortunately is not the case in South Africa.

Edited by Guss Davey
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On 2020/10/15 at 3:23 PM, Chloe said:

Hi all, I would be the first to admit I do not pay much attention to what our President says but I recently came across one of his resent newsletters that tickled my fancy in particular this section:

"In an effort to facilitate electricity self-generation and as part of the reform process, we have removed the licensing requirement for self-generation projects under 1 MW.  So far 156 self-generation facilities under 1 MW have been registered, with a total installed capacity of 72 MW."

http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/newsletters/desk-president%2C-monday%2C-28-september-2020

What is 1MW? 1MW all day per day?


That is a lot, actually. "less that 1 MW" is achievable, but with my sort of system the amount of electricity available to be fed back into the grid would be a few kw/h at most. 

The thing is this... even if I don't need a license, I still have to sell my excess back to the City, and the City really don't make it worth my while.

I suspect the regulatory change is aimed at sites that are pure generators and that feed directly into the grid, not house like mine that could sell a few kw/h back each day (depending on cloud cover).

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@Bobster I do agree a few kw would not be vaiable but if you stay on a farm or a more rural property it would make sense.

Most of those guys pay R2500 just to have a transformer on their property then they haven't even used any electricity yet. Imagine getting a montly bill of R20 000 to R100 000+ but you electrical supply is intermittent and off 4 hours of the day.

So now you fork out R500 000+ because that's your peak use but your pumps and stuff don't run the whole day or every day so there excess power that you can sell to the municipality. They now pay you R20 000 a month for as long as you can deliver.

PS. This is based on some municipalities that actually pay eskom rates to farmers.

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2 hours ago, Chloe said:

Imagine getting a montly bill of R20 000 to R100 000+ but you electrical supply is intermittent and off 4 hours of the day.

Lots of big industrial users have the opportunity to save millions if they do a proper assessment of the type of equipment and their power demand patterns. They can switch as much as possible of the basic loads over to solar, I have noticed a couple of industrial users with more than 3000 PV panels on there roof tops. These are big investments to make and to maximize the benefit they change all the lighting from the old 400Watt high bay type to 80Watt LED’s. Anything that guzzles electricity from out of the 1900’s must go. Even electric motors without smart inverter drives must go. Air-cons replaced with inverter type motors, geyser all over to solar. This must be a nightmare for the Eskom billing department and surely they must be feeling the pinch. To make things worse the small guy who never skipped a Eskom payment before are now also considering solar, I doubt it would be beneficial to try and feed into the grid for some payback for the small home owner but the benefit for those big industrial guys might be worth it if they are not operating on weekends and holidays where they can feed thousands of units into the grid.

 

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