The city expects that the portal will make solar PV system authorisation easier and dramatically bring down timeframes for their approval.
Hill-Lewis said that incentivising widespread uptake of safe, grid-tied solar PV was a key part of Cape Town’s plans to lessen Eskom reliance and end load-shedding over time. Although there are several municipalities that offer electricity credits for fed-in electricity, Cape Town is the only metro in South Africa that will pay households and businesses cash for selling their excess electricity back to the grid via its Cash for Power programme.
“The City has already halved the wait for Permission-to-Install letters by only accepting grid-tied SSEG systems using city-approved inverters, for the safety of our customers, our city teams, private installers and our grid itself,” Hill-Lewis said. “If residents already have a pending application, there is also no need to re-submit,” Van Reenen said.