The City of Cape Town aims to reduce the turnaround time of applications for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) systems by allocating more resources to deal with the applications, switching to an online application system and simplifying the customer experience.

With the big uptake in solar photovoltaic (PV) and batteries owing to loadshedding, there has also been an increase in fly-by-night operators. Many of these systems are not wired correctly or are inferior, contributing to the extended power outages the city is experiencing following load-shedding. The city wants to ensure customers are not negatively impacted, it said in a statement.

Cape Town has authorised 5 000 systems to date. From January to April, it received 2 333 applications, which is almost three times more than the number of applications received during the comparable period in 2022.

Apart from the loadshedding-driven spike in the volume of applications, many applications are incomplete or misrepresent the system configuration. This adds to lengthy processes and delays and is a health and safety hazard for the customer, as well as the teams working on the electricity grid.

"Many customers are given incorrect information from installers claiming they do not need to register their system or use approved equipment. This slows down the approvals process and compromises the safety of the network, and staff working on the electricity infrastructure and occupants. Importantly, it can lead to the tripping of electrical connections," said City of Cape Town Energy MMC Beverley van Reenen.

"We can see this impact already in some areas where there has been a big solar PV and battery storage uptake. Systems that are not correctly wired or are of inferior quality are contributing to the extended outages when the power comes back on after loadshedding."

Further, using an approved inverter means quicker authorisation for the customer, she added.

From October, all SSEG systems will need a city-approved inverter and professional sign-off. Currently, many systems using non-approved inverters are not wired correctly, posing risks to the safety and integrity of the network.

This significantly slows down the registration process because there are too many different wiring configurations for the city professionals to consider. Reducing the wiring configurations speeds up the process.

"This applies to solar PV and battery systems connected into wiring of the building but does not apply to trolley inverters that plug into wall sockets, for example, as these are regarded as electrical appliances."

Meanwhile, the city is currently testing a new cheaper single-phase advanced metering infrastructure meter, which will bring down the cost for customers feeding excess energy into the grid.

"The trend of customers switching to solar PV is likely to increase with ongoing loadshedding. The city is making the switch easier through the incentives, such as the existing feed-in tariff plus an extra 25c/kWh incentive feed-in tariff for excess energy fed into the grid," said Van Reenen.