The City of Cape Town says businesses and households have earned more than R25.8-million under the city’s Cash for Power programme since the start of the 2022/23 financial year.

This comes after the city started to buy excess solar photovoltaic power from small-scale generators in exchange for municipal bill credits and cash.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says key policy changes have now enabled power sellers to earn credits against their total municipal bill, and to go beyond that to receive cash for power fed back into the grid.

Previously, sellers could only be credited against their electricity bill up to a zero balance.

As at February 1, there were 1 461 sellers benefiting from Cape Town’s Cash for Power scheme as part of the city’s broader plans to end loadshedding over time.

Of these sellers, 869 are residential and 592 are commercial/industrial.

“We are transitioning this city’s energy mix to a far more decentralised supply of reliable, cost-effective and increasingly carbon-neutral energy that will come from a diverse range of suppliers,” says Hill-Lewis.

“That must be the future for our country too, and Cape Town is showing the way. The most exciting part is that residents and businesses are going to play a crucial role in helping us to end loadshedding by working together as Team Cape Town.

“The city will buy as much solar power as households and businesses can sell to us under the Cash for Power programme, with 25-million kilowatt-hours (kWh) already bought as at February 1 this year,” notes Hill-Lewis.

“In the 2022/23 financial year, we paid more than R10.5-million to Capetonians for their power, and in the current financial year we’ve already paid over R8.8-million.

“That’s a total of R19.4-million just on the feed-in tariff alone, plus a further R6.4-million when including the 25c/kWh incentive we’ve added to encourage participation.”

Municipal bills are credited automatically, with the option to apply to earn cash beyond a zero balance.

Businesses have been able to earn cash for power since June last year, with a first applications window open until March 8 for residents to now also earn cash.

The city says it is important to note that customers wishing to only offset their electricity and rates accounts do not need to apply, as they will automatically be compensated on authorisation of their grid-tied system when feed-in starts.

If customers are interested to go above and beyond this, they can register and receive cash for their power, where any remaining credit will accumulate until it reaches a certain amount.