City of Cape Town Link

Small-scale embedded generation owners urged to register their systems

Residents with SSEG systems are required to register and obtain authorisation in accordance with the City’s Electricity Supply By-law. This does not apply to solar water heaters. Connecting an SSEG system to the grid can pose a safety risk and, for this reason, the City must ensure that all generating equipment is approved and installed correctly. It has taken some time for South Africa to develop national standards to connect SSEGs safely to the electricity grid. In the absence of national standards, the City has developed temporary standards to allow people to register for authorisation and connect safely. Since 2010 all small-scale embedded generation systems must be registered with the City. With the finalisation of the national technical specifications, there is now growing clarity for the need for all SSEG owners to register their systems rather than obtain a generation licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA). This registration is anticipated to become a national legal requirement.As customers may not have been aware of the requirement to register and obtain authorisation for their SSEG, the City is proactively promoting registration and allowing a grace period for existing systems to be registered and authorised to ensure that all systems are compliant with the existing City by-law and the pending national legal requirement. To benefit from this grace period, property owners must register their SSEG system for authorisation with the City by 28 February 2019. After the grace period, the City will be implementing a service fee for the disconnection of unauthorised SSEG connections. The supply of electricity to the property in question may be disconnected and will only be allowed to be reconnected once the City is satisfied that the SSEG system is either disconnected, decommissioned or authorised and that the service fee has been paid. Customers registering their system during the grace period may continue to operate their system. This arrangement is based on the assumption that the system is compliant with the City’s requirements. If, during the registration and authorisation process, a system is found to be non-compliant it will need to be disconnected until such time as it is compliant and has received written authorisation from the City. Once customers have registered their system, they have six months in which to demonstrate compliance and receive written authorisation from the City. The City is proud to be a leader in SSEG and embraces the uptake of rooftop solar PV installations which contribute to our goal of a greener and cleaner city. We are however legally required to ensure that the electricity distributed to all of our consumers complies with set quality standards and that we also protect the City’s employees from inadvertent electrical shocks when working on the grid. Connecting generators to the grid without obtaining the necessary authorisation can result in systems endangering the City’s staff and members of the public as no-one would be aware of the existence of the system or the influence that it could have on the grid. It could also interfere with quality of supply and electricity demand management. We really are fortunate in this city to have many customers who have invested in technology to not only save money but also to contribute to Cape Town’s electricity-saving efforts and we thank our customers for their cooperation during the registration process. To ensure that the system is safe and legal: <ul><li><div style="text-align:left;"> All permanent grid-tied electricity generators in the area supplied directly by the City must be authorised in writing</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Unauthorised generators that are grid-tied will be considered to be a form of tampering</div></li><li><div style="text-align:left;">Off-grid systems must also be registered so that they are not mistaken for grid-tied systems</div></li></ul> Emergency equipment such as standby generators do not need to be registered unless they are synchronised or connected to the City’s electrical distribution network. If customers would like to be credited for excess energy production they must please register for authorisation for a grid-tied feed-in system, install an AMI meter if they do not already have one and switch to the SSEG tariff. Running a meter backwards or feeding onto the grid without authorisation is not permitted. To start the registration process, visit <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/solarpv" target="_blank">www.capetown.gov.za/solarpv</a>. For information on the City’s SSEG programme go to <a href="https://www.savingelectricity.org.za/" target="_blank">www.SavingElectricity.org.za</a>. End

2018-07-23T22:00:00Z

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