Enable municipalities to procure from households
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Individual Reform: Enable municipalities to procure from households 2026 - 2027

Not yet effective as municipalities still need to be equipped to do this. The high uptake of rooftop solar will generate a significant amount of excess power that can be sold back to the grid.

Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

No data available for the deliverable: Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

No data available for the deliverable: Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

No data available for the deliverable: Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

No data available for the deliverable: Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

No data available for the deliverable: Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households

Summary

Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (such that meters can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). Cape Town has introduced a net metering scheme in 2023 but to date is the only municipality to actively be providing a programme to general consumers.

Canvas not supported.

Is it working?

It is working to a limited extent among those municipalities that have implemented schemes. Cape Town has a general scheme for consumers but Buffalo City, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay have feed-in tariffs at various levels and agreements with some consumers to contribute to the grid. Government has largely achieved the goal of enabling net billing, but we will continue to monitor the deliverable to see if a critical mass of distributors to implement general feed-in schemes.

Actions

With the regulatory framework in place it is now up to municipalities and Eskom to put them into action. There are 165 municipalities and Eskom involved in distribution in the country. Each distributor would need to design its own rules including a tariff for those feeding into the grid and provide for equipment that would enable net metering. So far only Cape Town has a generally available scheme in place but other municipalities have set up limited feed-in schemes.

Are there plans?

Nersa published final net billing rules on 17 December 2024. Some municipalities had already implemented schemes based on the draft guildelines. The rules set out a basis on which distributors can credit inputs into the grid against the bills of consumers.

Is it on the agenda?

In April 2023, Nersa published draft net bililng rules for public comment. These advise municipalities on how best to develop net billing tariffs to pay customers for feeidng into the grid.

Goals

The goal is to enable municipalities to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar) to support local grid capacity.

References

Departments / Govt Institutions

Department of Electricity and Energy National Energy Regulator of South Africa

Summary

Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (so that meters can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). There are seven municipalities that have Nersa-approved feed-in tariffs: Cape Town, the City of Tshwane, eThekwini, City Power in Johannesburg, Theewaterskloof municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay and Overstrand. They are among the few that operate net metering schemes for households with small-scale embedded generation solutions.
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Canvas not supported.

Is it working?

It is working to a limited extent among those municipalities that have implemented schemes.Government, through Nersa, has largely achieved the goal of enabling net billing, but we will continue to monitor the deliverable for critical mass.

Actions

With the regulatory framework in place it is now up to municipalities and Eskom to put them into action. There are 165 municipalities and Eskom involved in distribution in the country. Each distributor would need to design its own rules including a tariff for those feeding into the grid, and provide for equipment that would enable net metering. So far less than 10 municipalities have some kind of feed-in tariff or net metering scheme in place.

Are there plans?

Nersa published final net billing rules on 17 December 2024. Some municipalities had already implemented schemes based on the draft guildelines. The rules set out a basis on which distributors can credit inputs into the grid against the bills of consumers.

Is it on the agenda?

Nersa has provided the net billing rules to enable municipalities to implement these schemes.It is not clear if every municipality is considering implementing these schemes, and what the drivers might be. Partly why Cape Town implemented a scheme was to increase its independence of Eskom's power and reduce the impact of load shedding on residents and businesses.

Goals

The goal is to enable municipalities to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar) to support local grid capacity.

References

Departments / Govt Institutions

Department of Electricity and Energy National Energy Regulator of South Africa

Summary

Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (so that meters can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). There are seven municipalities that have Nersa-approved feed-in tariffs: Cape Town, the City of Tshwane, eThekwini, City Power in Johannesburg, Theewaterskloof municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay and Overstrand. They are among the few that operate net metering schemes for households with small-scale embedded generation solutions.
rn

Canvas not supported.

Is it working?

It is working to a limited extent among those municipalities that have implemented schemes.Government, through Nersa, has largely achieved the goal of enabling net billing, but we will continue to monitor the deliverable for critical mass.

Actions

With the regulatory framework in place it is now up to municipalities and Eskom to put them into action. There are 165 municipalities and Eskom involved in distribution in the country. Each distributor would need to design its own rules including a tariff for those feeding into the grid, and provide for equipment that would enable net metering. So far less than 10 municipalities have some kind of feed-in tariff or net metering scheme in place.

Are there plans?

Nersa published final net billing rules on 17 December 2024. Some municipalities had already implemented schemes based on the draft guildelines. The rules set out a basis on which distributors can credit inputs into the grid against the bills of consumers.

Is it on the agenda?

Nersa has provided the net billing rules to enable municipalities to implement these schemes.It is not clear if every municipality is considering implementing these schemes, and what the drivers might be. Partly why Cape Town implemented a scheme was to increase its independence of Eskom's power and reduce the impact of load shedding on residents and businesses.

Goals

The goal is to enable municipalities to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar) to support local grid capacity.

References

Departments / Govt Institutions

Department of Electricity and Energy National Energy Regulator of South Africa

Summary

Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (so that meters can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). There are seven municipalities that have Nersa-approved feed-in tariffs: Cape Town, the City of Tshwane, eThekwini, City Power in Johannesburg, Theewaterskloof municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay and Overstrand. They are among the few that operate net metering schemes for households with small-scale embedded generation solutions.

Canvas not supported.

Is it working?

It is working to a limited extent among those municipalities that have implemented schemes.Government, through Nersa, has largely achieved the goal of enabling net billing, but we will continue to monitor the deliverable for critical mass.

Actions

With the regulatory framework in place it is now up to municipalities and Eskom to put them into action. There are 165 municipalities and Eskom involved in distribution in the country. Each distributor would need to design its own rules including a tariff for those feeding into the grid, and provide for equipment that would enable net metering. So far less than 10 municipalities have some kind of feed-in tariff or net metering scheme in place.

Are there plans?

Nersa published final net billing rules on 17 December 2024. Some municipalities had already implemented schemes based on the draft guildelines. The rules set out a basis on which distributors can credit inputs into the grid against the bills of consumers.

Is it on the agenda?

Nersa has provided the net billing rules to enable municipalities to implement these schemes.It is not clear if every municipality is considering implementing these schemes, and what the drivers might be. Partly why Cape Town implemented a scheme was to increase its independence of Eskom's power and reduce the impact of load shedding on residents and businesses.

Goals

The goal is to enable municipalities to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar) to support local grid capacity.

References

Departments / Govt Institutions

Department of Electricity and Energy National Energy Regulator of South Africa

Analyst: Lameez Hyman
Status: in-progress
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