18/07/2025
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Energy18.07.2025
South Africans with solar panels can tell Eskom to take a hike
By Hanno Labuschagne
Afriforum has maintained that Eskom’s onerous registration requirements for grid-tied solar power systems have no legal basis and warned the power utility may abuse people’s details for future tariffs.
In a recent YouTube discussion, two senior members of Afriforum’s local government affairs division explained why they believe South Africans should not bother registering their system.
Eskom’s controversial small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) requirements include criteria that go well beyond those of municipalities like the City of Cape Town (CoCT).
For example, the power utility argues that a regular electrical certificate of compliance (CoC) is insufficient to ensure the system’s safety and requires an embedded generator compliance report instead.
Furthermore, it maintains that this document can only be signed off by an electrical engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa).
These and other requirements have significant cost implications for unregistered solar power users who are Eskom Direct customers, adding anywhere from R20,000 to R50,000 to become compliant.
However, Afriforum advisor for local government affairs, Deidrè Steffens, maintains there is no statutory requirement for solar power systems with capacities under 100kWp to register with Eskom.
She argued that the Electricity Regulation Act only required embedded generators connected to the grid with more than 100kWp production to register with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
Steffens also pointed out that Eskom’s requirement that SSEG customers get an electrical engineer registered with Ecsa to sign off on the system was not a prescribed requirement.
“The enforceable National Rational Standards (NRS) say nothing about the requirement for engineer sign-off; it primarily speaks of an accredited technician who must sign off on the system,” Steffens said.
In addition to being legally questionable, the requirement could also be major headache in practice.
Because only a handful of electrical engineers are available across the country to inspect installations, Steffens said the requirement would cause a big bottleneck in registrations.
She cautioned people to tread carefully around Eskom’s registration sugarcoating, including its offer of free bidirectional meters, feed-in tariffs, and zero registration fees.
Questions about ulterior motives
Morné Mostert, Manager of Local Government Affairs at AfriForum
Afriform local government affairs manager Morné Mostert said Eskom could not force people to register their systems through statutory requirements, and could not threaten fines for violating them.
He questioned why Eskom was effectively launching an “attack” on people generating their own electricity with its onerous requirements and alleged the utility could have an ulterior motive.
“The dark side of this argument is that Eskom wants its hands on people’s data — potentially for solar tariffs in the future,” Mostert said.
“We understand it from the perspective of Nersa wanting to use important strategic information that can have a big impact on South Africa, but we need to make sure it does not end up in Eskom’s hands.”
EE Business Intelligence managing director and energy expert Chris Yelland previously also questioned the legality of Eskom’s registration requirements, but on grounds different from Afriforum’s.
Yelland said that the NRS standard that Eskom uses to justify its requirement for sign-off by an Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) member was not legally enforceable.
“I question whether that is even legal because Eskom is not allowed to pass mandatory standards. It can make voluntary standards, but I don’t know if it’s legal.”
Electrical CoC good enough
A work-in-progress solar power system being installed in a Pretoria home.
Yelland said the only laws that South African homes and businesses were compelled to follow for SSEG installations were prescribed in South Africa’s Electrical Installation Regulations.
The regulations currently only require that an electrician or electrical contractor registered with the labour department issue an electrical CoC for an SSEG installation.
This aligns with the view of the Electrical Contractors Association of South Africa (Ecasa), which told MyBroadband that the only exceptions were in specialised or hazardous locations.
A Master Installation Electrician is also permitted to work on any installation, covering AC voltages up to 1,000 volts and DC installations up to 1,500 volts.
Although it is not a legal requirement, electricians already have an international standard that was adopted as a South African standard for solar PV systems — dubbed SANS 60364-7-712.
This guides the technical functionality and appropriate measures to ensure the safe operation of the system.
