I’d think this predominantly businesses (and during the day). And I’d bet that this is time limited. So in 2 years or so they can start using IPPs, or they can decide to extend the current deal.
I’m yet to hear, here or in the other place, of a householder who is selling back and making a difference to their bill. I certainly can’t see how that can happen in Johannesburg. A large part of this is the cost of the meters. Probably a business can write that off like they do their panels and inverters. I can’t.
This may not trouble municipalities too much. Not too far from me are three big and one medium mall, and two hospitals, all with panels all over their roofs. Much easier to do business with them.
Cape Town can do this better. Because they have pump storage of their own. They can buy all that juice from the malls in the day and use it to charge the pump storage.
I have a residential client in Cape Town, who is selling back to the city, he has a 3 phase system, using a 3 phase bi-directional meter, he has opted to get credit on his rates.
I have a residential client in Cape Town, who is selling back to the city, he has a 3 phase system, using a 3 phase bi-directional meter, he has opted to get credit on his rates.
He has a Sunsynk 12 kW 3 phase inverter with twenty 545 watt JaSolar panels, in summer, he is generating close to 70 kWh per day and is exporting 30-35 kWh’s per day
OK. He’s in a different league from me LOL. On a good day I’d have 2 maybe 3 kWh to sell back.
Sounds like he always intended to do the sell back.
Also COCT have negotiated a waiver from the NERSA requirement that “prosumers” must be net CONsumers IE you can’t sell back more than you buy. This is a trap for me in COJ. My average draw from the City per day is about 1.5 kWh. So that’s how much I can sell back, no matter how much capacity I may have.
COCT have been proactive with this. NERSA set the buy-back tariff, but COCT found a way to add 25c per unit as an incentive.
Could be as much as 30K per year for your client. A decent saving.
It isn’t. They are busy trying to source a different brand of meter which can be provided at a lower price. Again this is less of a concern to businesses as they can write it off as a cost of doing business. For householders it is a significant cost. About 10K in Johannesburg last I checked.
So our client in Cape Town has good sell back for maybe half the year, but has had to lay out the cash for extra panels and the two-way meter. I don’t want to stick my nose in where it’s not wanted, but it shows that you have to crunch the numbers carefully when opting to resell.
For me there is no way it can even be cost neutral. I will be significantly out of pocket.
City Power are coming to inspect my system next week. AIUI they are going to recommend that I switch to the reseller’s tariff but, at present, can only recommend. I am going to politely say “no thanks”. It is going to cost me 10 grand for the meter, nearly a grand a month on the fees that are applied for running the account, reading the meters and etc, and I will have to run my system harder and can still only be a net consumer. I would honestly make my little contribution by giving my excess away, as long as it doesn’t cost me to do so. But right now with a 10 grand conversion cost, plus a grand a month, and the net consumer requirement, I can only lose.
If you are in COJ and are on the default post-paid package then the pain is less as you are already paying those fixed fees per month. But you still will run into the net consumer requirement, and still have to recover the cost of the meter. For folks like me who are on pre-paid it is impossible to just break even.
NB! There may be some combination of TOU and reseller tariffs that make the proposition more attractive, but the big problem with City Power (and really the City, and our elected representatives) is that communication is so bad. If they can show that you can win by selling back then they should be shouting that very loudly.
Somebody else just popped up on the other forum to say that he loves COCT’s buy-back option and is making lots of money. His initial claims were eyebrow raising, but now he’s talking about 9 grand cash back over the last 6 months. Which is better than a kick in the pants.
He claims to have paid off the meter (11K) in 5 months (which doesn’t fit with his current earnings) and to have bought shrewdly and installed no-named brand or on sale gear on the cheap. He says he’s generating over 110kWh in a day .
On page 400 now. Man a tragedy indeed, Willem Wikkelspies comes to mind. Bad housekeeping, bad water chemistry, air leaks and bad combustion. Water leaks, steam leaks and bad maintenance causing really high inefficiencies.
Consistently bad management, consistent lack of maintenance and housekeeping causing most of them problems and losses as well as the low EAF.
In spite of the report, these is as yet no visible changes (if there is, it would take some time to have an effect) as is evident in the EAF.
on a 