432 Cape Town households have applied to earn cash from selling their excess solar power to the City following the closure of the first window for residential seller applications in March. The applications will be assessed for eligibility under the city’s ‘Cash for Power’ programme.
Cape Town is the first metro to buy excess solar photovoltaic (PV) power from small-scale generators in exchange for municipal bill credits and cash.
“Previously, sellers could only be credited against their electricity bill up to a zero balance, but we have made key policy changes to enable the total municipal bill to be credited as well as enabling cash payouts,” says Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
The city has also launched a new online portal to make registering a PV system easier, with plans to roll out a cheaper bi-directional meter to feed power back into the grid “very soon”, Hill-Lewis said.
Cape Town businesses and households have earned over R30,8m – primarily in municipal bill credits – since the start of the 2022/23 financial year up to April 1. This figure includes R23,5m on the feed-in tariff, plus a further R7,3m when including the 25c per kWh incentive the city has added to encourage participation. There are currently 1 537 sellers benefitting via their excess generation.
Residential power sellers who would like to apply to earn cash beyond their automatic municipal bill credits can still do so. “While the first window closed in March, all applications received will be assessed in the second window, with the dates to be announced in due course,” Hill-Lewis said.
How to authorise a solar PV system online
Customers wishing to offset their electricity and rate accounts only do not need to apply. They will automatically be compensated on the authorisation of their grid-tied SSEG system with feed-in.
PV installers and property owners must register on e-Services and activate the “Energy Services” tile to access Energy Service Applications. They can then apply to authorise the solar PV system via the online portal.
