I wasn't aware that anybody was doing grid-tied in South Africa - I thought we were all battery-backed hybrid installs, to cope with loadshedding? The difference might not be important because my hybrid setup can also feed power back to the grid (although that's horribly dangerous and illegal to do it without the proper metering and switching - If the city turns off the local grid so workers can safely work on them, I really don't want to be the dickhead re-energizing that grid to try and knock a few rands off my bill and killing somebody) but that feature is disabled by the installers.

And... I dunno, I think two things are happening here.

1) Eskom using dodgy intimidation tactics to protect their monopoly (Calling a "community meeting" under false pretenses and them taking names and ambushing attendees with threats is a dick move)

and

2) A bunch of idiots ignoring legislation and regulations installing dangerous systems because screw eskom, nobody tells me what to do, I'll just tell them to get lost (I had a landlord who was like that... he got fined a quarter of a million rand. It was a police matter. FAFO.)

For what it's worth, my system is fully registered, fully compliant, and has a full CoC - I didn't have to ask for any of this, I just used real electricians who know the law and who did it all automatically without being asked because they don't want to lose their licenses by doing dodgy installs.

If I want to sell power back to the city, then I'll also need to buy one of those expensive two-way meters, but the rates they want to pay are so low that it's not worth it.

@uastronomer I used a real electrician too, and got a proper installation with a proper CoC. I don't have a meter that can feed electricity back into the grid, though, and according to the article, I get the impression that one of the requirements is that you *must* get one, whether you intend to do so or not. And they're saying that the CoC you got from your electrician isn't actually sufficient and you need another document. And something about requiring an isolator/cutoff to your inverter installed outside of your premises, that's accessible to Eskom (not 100% sure what that means, because doesn't everyone have a means for Eskom to cut off their power remotely?).

Re being totally off-grid, I think some people are. If you have enough panels and wind turbines, and you have a big enough battery to keep your household running for days, then you can contact them and officially disconnect from the grid. Then they truly won't care about you at all anymore (but if we have a week with no sun or wind, and your batteries run dead and you need to reconnect, get in line because... well, they don't really care about you 🙂)

Yeah I mean we're municipal customers - we connect to our city grids and pay our bills to the municipality. But rural people have to buy direct from Eskom, which is expensive to set up - they pay for running kilometers of overhead lines to their home, for example. And on those setups, there has to be a switch that Eskom can reach without trespassing onto your property.

It's just not an issue for urban folks like us because all that infrastructure is already set up, and we're not connected to Eskom's grid in the first place - we're on the city grid.

You've got the little meter on the sidewalk outside your home, there's a lockable master switch that they can use to turn off your power if needed (we've had this done when we were behind on a bill!). Eskom wants the same on farms and factories, because they want to be able to cut you off if don't pay your bill, or if you do something dangerous.

Grid-tied is almost the opposite of off-grid - there's no batteries, and your panels run at 100% all the time - unused power gets fed into the grid, and you're only supposed to do this with smart meters where the utility can measure how much energy they're receiving (so they can pay you for it), but also so they can cut if off (people working on the lines, faulty equipment generating out of phase with the rest of the grid, and whatever other reasons). It's cheap to set up, and if you've got an old-fashioned meter, those electromechanical ones with the turning wheel, then pumping energy back out will run it backwards and your bill goes down, but this is very illegal and always has been, whether you're using solar or a diesel generator.