Solar power in the Eastern Cape

Nelson Mandela Bay: your supply size caps the system

The metro's SSEG requirements limit generation on a shared low-voltage feeder to roughly 25% of your notified maximum demand. On a standard single-phase 80 A house supply that works out to 4.6 kW, and anything larger must be a balanced three-phase system, which means upgrading to a three-phase supply first.

After you apply, Metering Services inspect the site with your electrician and quote; you pay, then submit the certificate of compliance, commissioning confirmation and a declaration from an ECSA-registered engineer or technologist. The metro then fits its own bi-directional meter, charging you half the meter's cost plus fitting and admin.

The metro only takes applications from customers who buy electricity directly from it, not through a reseller such as a complex. Domestic solar customers are billed on the Domestic Time-of-Use tariff, with exports set off against imports in the same time slot.

How Nelson Mandela Bay credits exports

Under the 2016 rules, surplus left at the end of a billing cycle was forfeited. The metro's 2025/26 net-billing application to NERSA proposed something better:

• Exports are credited at 80% of the metro's avoided Eskom cost, per time-of-use period, and only up to what you import in that period.
• Credits offset energy charges only, not fixed or basic charges.
• Unused credit rolls over within the municipal financial year; there's no cash payout.
• If you sell the house, the buyer signs a new agreement and your credits don't transfer.

Buffalo City: meter changes and real penalties

Buffalo City's application form brings costs other metros don't: your prepaid meter comes out, and you pay a security deposit and open a credit account. If your house is fed by overhead mains, they must be replaced with an underground service and a low-voltage meter cubicle at your expense. Panels may not stand more than 1.5 m above the roof line, and ground-mounted arrays over 2.1 m need approved building plans.

The old form said exports earned nothing until the metro adopted a feed-in tariff. It has since done so: the 2025/26 tariff book credits approved installations R1.61 per exported kWh including VAT, capped at the energy you import that month. The same tariff book lists a charge of R3,853.45 for failing to register an SSEG system after a written instruction.

Smaller towns and Eskom areas

Outside the metros, readiness varies. SALGA's 2023 survey found Kouga (Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp) with an approved SSEG tariff and 4 MWp registered, while Makana (Makhanda) had an application process but no approved tariff. Where Eskom bills you directly, your installer registers the system with Eskom, which has waived its registration-related fees for grid-tied systems up to 50 kVA until further notice.