Solar users MUST register panels or face fines
Homeowners could face enormous costs for having unregistered solar panels.
Solar panels. Picture: Pexels
Bongani Bingwa speaks with Mathew Cruise, an energy expert at Impower.
Listen below:
Eskom is cracking down on home and business owners with rooftop solar.
They could soon face fines of more than R50,000 if their panels are unregistered.
According to Cruise, it has always been a requirement that solar panel users register their systems and show they are not a risk to the grid.
However, this requirement was not well publicised.
Solar systems must be registered through Eskom’s Small Scale Embedded Generators (SSEG) programme.
Once this SSEG application is put together and sent to Eskom it can take between one and three months before the system can be brought online.
Some solar users did not register their panels because Eskom had threatened to charge solar users more for electricity.
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“There was a disincentive for people informing Eskom.”
- Mathew Cruise, Energy expert - Impower
Solar users have until March of next year to register before the fines come into effect.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.