Man, this IS seriously impressive … give me a LOT of hope for SA.
Ja boet …
Gives me very little hope for these clowns to get it right in time … we’ll just have some wine in the meantime.
I didn’t read the article. I did read somewhere else, this week, that Eskom has proposed one candidate, and Gordhan says they need at least 3. That’s the sticking point, apparently.
Yeah …
We’ll have to wait for Gordhan to respond.
The Pretoria situation makes one wonder, since 2008, why have non of the installed but not usable capacity in the coal fleet been repaired? Would they rather steal the peaker plant diesel mony? Just wondering out loud…. Since there is about 40-50% capacity being carried away in parts?
WondermaarnetGroetnis
It’s BT… and it is old news. You can’t sail this close to stage 7 and NOT start making extra schedules. Doing this doesn’t mean we’re definitely going there (although, some other things might mean we’re going there anyway). And not doing this would be worse.
Let’s hope it all works as planned …
Call me skeptical, but is “summer” not only three months long?
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Here in Limpopo it’s about 9 months long 
This is a good one from my favroute reporter on all things Eskom, Ferial Haffajee.
While MyBroadband is not my favourite “news” outfit, I do receive emails from them and noticed an article this morning:
CoCT Bans Offgrid Inverters in Installations with PV
This ought to be interesting. While I generally try to be as libertarian as possible, the “as possible” is applied and this might be a good move in my opinion by CoCT. I assume most of these “offgrid” inverters are actually not NRS compliant, and are in fact connected to the grid directly on the AC input.
I really only skimmed the article, might have missed some technical details, but I’m glad they are taking the regulation of these systems seriously.
It seems like a “slow news” day article to me.
I’ve seen this being bandied around for the last two weeks or so… I see our “sister site” already started discussing this around the 9th of September, so almost three weeks now.
Engineering News reported on this in July already.
It will also not apply to scenarios where residents completely sever their homes from the grid.
So if it is really OFF GRID, you can still say so. I bet you a buck most people on social media will not see that before flying off into a raging fit.
The city’s regulations apply only where there is a connection to the electricity network.
So, this finally closes the Axpert loophole. You can’t install an Axpert in Cape Town.
The new rules will not apply to mobile solutions like trolley inverters or power stations that can be plugged into wall sockets.
… unless it is on a trolley 
Jip, that is what I took from it. Or the Voltronics clones in general. Well you can, as long as you don’t connect PV.
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Old news … Cpt sent out an email BEFORE it became “news”. 1 Oct, no more “loopholes”.
And every other “Solar” inverter out there that is <R10k … and a LOT has been sold.
Methinks, if you look at it without emotion, forget about your “kingdom”, that if 1mil houses were to go grid-tied solar, you better stop this mess created by 1) homeowners who get the cheapest they can get and 2) getting an installer to install that, one who has not read the sparkie regulations book themselves, may not even own the latest copy.
Elke ou is mos nou 'n “axpert” met elektristeit en solar.
Like a family member in Jhb was going there until I had a hissy fit … FFS, I said, it is NOT a CAPE TOWN REGULATION!!! There are national regulations in and around solar and DB’s, DAMMIT!!!
… that is after he told me how many “solar installs” are causing fires. Geez I said … do you even listen to yourself!?
He got the message eventually … his really cheap-ass 5-Star “solar” inverter is now a UPS and the panels he bought, heating his geysers.
If you want to go solar, do it right. Get a NRS certified inverter … at the very least you know it is the very best in lieu of a SABS stamp of approval.
Ps. But I know, we all know, the bug has bit the family member … .rabbit hole has opened. Will get him onto a Victron maybe one day. 
EDIT: What I also ponder on, is if cities want to go solar, you need to get it right from the bottom up … so make everyone install NRS certified, and you solve a huge future problem.
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Well, it looks like it isn’t retroactive. If you had it approved before 1 October, it’s legal. Just no new ones will be approved after that. And as we know, registration has been a thing for a decade now, and they started really getting serious about it about 4 years ago. So nobody really has an excuse.
If you installed the cheap Axpert and were planning to git solar panels later… well… that plan’s screwed now.
I must say however, and I may get some flack for this from that quarter, but in some ways I almost feel like this isn’t going far enough. If, as the EN article says:
Some recent incidents Cape Town’s Fire & Rescue Service had to deal with, related to attempts to counter loadshedding, include four people being overwhelmed by fumes from a generator; a gas explosion at a home; a fire on a truck transporting lithium-ion batteries; the batteries on an inverter system in a mall store igniting; a battery bank overheating owing to insufficient ventilation; and solar panels going up in flames on a factory roof.
then it sounds like three quarters of the problem isn’t even because of the solar panels.
Of course, enforcing this for solar panels likely also solves three quarters of the problem, as there is substantial overlap. It is probably also quite hard to enforce this without visual external signs that the electrical system has been modified. And as the spokesperson said according to the MyBB article…
There had been little to no repercussions from the Department of Labour for poor electrical installations either…
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It is not, correct. But looking at the amount of panels on the way to SA, more and more people than ever before may want to get solar … and THAT is where it can now be fixed going forward.
And when those retroactive inverters need replacement … they should re-register … so you catch those on the backhand.
And let’s not forget, Cpt wants to buy electricity from us … wants to cut LS levels down … so there is that big picture too, to keep in mind in the next 1-10 years. We need NRS-certified units in every house to solve Cpt’s problem, my take.
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So at most not being retroactive is a 5 year problem. On average it is a 2 year problem. 
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