Significant Eskom registration news for individuals with rooftop solar in South Africa

Eskom’s guidelines for rooftop solar registration are still vague, and the civil action organization OUTA advises homeowners and businesses to refrain from registering until the utility resolves various pending matters.

This pertains to a meeting held on Friday, August 8, 2025, between Eskom Distribution management and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).

OUTA said Eskom is still working through several matters that will directly affect the conditions and processes for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) systems.

The two parties talked about the compliance and registration stipulations for low-voltage solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BES) systems set up in residences and enterprises throughout South Africa.

OUTA expressed its worries regarding what it describes as burdensome and expensive compliance demands impacting three primary groups.

These categories comprise prepaid clients with Homelight rates, postpaid clients with Homepower rates, and Homeflex time-of-use clients with solar PV and/or BES systems that do not return electricity to the Eskom grid.

OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage stated that the meeting verified that considerable uncertainty persists.

“He mentioned that various issues remain unclear regarding the public’s requirement to register their solar energy and battery systems with Eskom, as has been widely reported in the media recently.”

He mentioned that OUTA has been flooded with inquiries from the public regarding whether to continue with registration.

“Duvenage explained that this was the reason for our meeting with Eskom, and we believe, and mutually concur, that there are numerous issues that are still ongoing concerning tariffs, concerning the national standards requirements, [and] electrical compliance certification or lack thereof for these systems.”

“We think the public should refrain from registering at this point.” Eskom has numerous issues to resolve, in our view, and they must offer more clarity on this subject moving forward,” Duvenage emphasized.

He stated that the existing procedure is overly burdensome. “There are simply too many burdensome requirements in place, and we’ve communicated to Eskom that we feel the public should refrain from registering at this time until there’s more clarity.”

OUTA believes that Eskom’s current strategy is unreasonable, unjust, detrimental to the poor, and biased against households and businesses that have worked to lessen their dependence on the national grid.

The organization is confident that the required SABS Code of Practice for Low-Voltage Electrical Installations is undergoing revisions to include standby and grid-tied solar PV and BES systems, which are the most typical residential setups.

OUTA contends that upon implementation of these amendments, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Electrical Installation Regulations, and the SANS 10142-1 standard will already encompass all required technical, safety, compliance, and enforcement guidelines for such systems.

Within this framework, OUTA contends that Eskom has no reason to mandate approval from a professional registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) for residential SSEG installations.

Rather, a legitimate Certificate of Compliance (CoC) from an accredited and registered electrical contractor will be adequate.

OUTA claims that Eskom’s existing regulations for behind-the-meter systems below 100 kW might surpass its regulatory and safety enforcement powers.

In the meeting, Eskom’s Distribution representatives consented to review the concerns brought up and to answer OUTA’s questions and submissions at a later time.

OUTA intends to keep interacting with Eskom and the Department of Employment and Labour, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, as well as the SABS working group in charge of SANS 10142-1.

Until OUTA is convinced that all existing demands are reasonable and essential, or that registration is actually needed, it has advised homeowners and businesses with small-scale systems to postpone registering with Eskom or their local municipality.

Significant Eskom registration news for individuals with rooftop solar in South Africa

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