As a way to fight the crippling load shedding that has affected many people the City of Cape Town will now buy electricity from residents.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said Treasury has allowed the municipality to buy electricity from residents and connect into their own grid. This means those who produce their own solar energy they can now sell the excess to the City.
National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved a rate of 78,98c/kWh for this financial year for the City to pay power sellers. The City said they will pay a 25c/kWh incentive tariff on top of the approved rate. The City expects to start buying from the residents in the coming few months.
“We have received the exemption from the national treasury that we asked for many months ago. We finally received feedback on that and the news is positive. We have an exemption and that means that we can start to put in place a system in which people with solar panels on their roof can feed power back to the city and be paid in cash for that power,” said Hill-Lewis.
“The future is now, as we aim to immediately roll out the paying of cash for power. Payments to commercial customers will be possible before June, and within the year for any Capetonian with the necessary City-approved generation capacity.
“If you’re thinking of investing in a solar system, it just got more attractive,” Hill-Lewis said.