{"id":877761,"date":"2026-10-01T08:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=877761"},"modified":"2026-10-01T08:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:38:41","slug":"great-news-for-anyone-with-rooftop-solar-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/877761\/great-news-for-anyone-with-rooftop-solar-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Great news for anyone with rooftop solar in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Power utility Eskom has announced it will extend its waiver of registration-related charges for small-scale generators, such as rooftop solar, indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deadline for free registration with the utility was set to expire on 30 September 2026, after which, solar users would have faced steep charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the utility has now backed off from imposing a set deadline, with the waiver in effect &#8220;until further notice&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the second extension of the deadline, after Eskom extended it from the original date on 31 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, however, the waiver <strong>only applies to qualifying customers supplied directly by Eskom<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers supplied by municipalities will need to contact their municipal redistributor regarding registration requirements and any applicable charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move to waive registration fees indefinitely is just the latest concession from Eskom over solar registration, which has faced pushback from solar owners and the wider solar industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The utility had previously taken an aggressive stance on the issue, threatening steep fines of up to R30,000 to anyone who had not registered their grid-connected solar systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Eskom, all eligible customer-owned generation systems of up to 50 kVA that are connected directly to its distribution network must be registered for safety reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rub was that it required costly sign-off from professional engineers and carried steep registration fees that would have cost households thousands of rands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These requirements were challenged by energy experts with the support of OUTA, which resulted in Eskom largely backing off from its costly demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As noted by energy expert and OUTA consultant Chris Yelland:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eskom no longer requires a residential solar PV\/BES installation to be signed off by a professional registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eskom now accepts a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued by a duly qualified installation electrician or electrical contractor registered with the Department of Employment &amp; Labour.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eskom has withdrawn its earlier threats to fine and\/or cut electricity supply to residential customers who fail to register their installations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There is now no deadline to register free of charge. Despite these concessions, Eskom says that solar users still need to register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The extension removes registration-related charges for eligible customers but does not change the underlying regulatory requirement for qualifying grid-connected generation facilities to be registered,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRegistration is a standard feature of modern electricity systems as countries integrate increasing levels of customer-owned generation into their networks.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom said the registration process enables customer-owned generation to be safely and efficiently integrated into a shared network that serves all customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also lays the foundation for bidirectional smart metering, appropriate tariffs and credits, and future flexibility services, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom added that a CoC and registration serve different purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A CoC confirms compliance with applicable electrical safety requirements, while registration provides information regarding the location, technology and installed capacity of generation facilities connected to the electricity network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur focus is to make compliance clear, accessible and affordable. We want to assist customers with registering qualifying installations as simply as possible while supporting the safety of customers, contractors, employees and the broader electricity network,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom said eligible customers can obtain information and begin the registration process through its Small-Scale Embedded Generation registration platform. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Power utility Eskom has announced it will extend its waiver of registration-related charges for small-scale generators, such as rooftop solar, indefinitely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":858364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2105548026743754933","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2222602661893466","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,8540],"class_list":["post-877761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877767,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877761\/revisions\/877767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}