Hence my reference, “It is a CoCT “regulation””, or the other one, “It is a CoCT inverter” based on another big SA forum where experts there insisted it is not national regulations, not applicable to anyone outside of CoCT.
Context:
Some of us here became aware of these regulations as far back as 2008.
Then in 2019 when CoCT “put their foot down” with their local bylaws, the “you will register”.
Now it is Eskom starting to begin to enforce the National published, since yonks back, SA Regulations.
CoCT has dunnit all already. Eskom, can be a “copy/paste” to get it going nationally.
Some Munic will only get to it much later, when they get real public servants in.
But Eskom, their direct customers, will be interesting to see this thing evolve over the coming years for home users.
The COJ rules (but not the actual registration process) look a lot like the COCT rules, and some folks think that all they’ve done is copy the COCT rules. But in reality both sets of regs derive from a SANS standard.
As I said before, the big problem is Eskom is making the entire SSEG process overly complicated to understand, let alone actually going through with the process which can take months.
My bet is 80% of direct Eskom customers wanted to, read through the documentation, maybe enquired to Eskom to get clarity on some questions and then simply gave up.
Again we sit with the same old story where the average person in SA feel they pay for a Eskom service which they don’t get, if I remember last time I looked at the process, I had to pay Eskom R1800 as part of the SSEG application, simply for the privilage to get a quote from them on the new meter and other things I’ll have to get.
Again I say if it was a straight forward application process, which won’t cost me a arm and a leg to comply with, not referring to NRS certified equipment and CoC’s since those are anyway a given, then I would gladly comply.
I don’t know about you, but I’m just a computer programmer. When they start talking about watts & earthing & keeping DC & AC separate, well I have some idea about some of that, but no way am I going to understand those documents, let alone check my system for conformance. An since I’m not a PrEng (whatever that is) I can’t sign off anyway.
And those documents, other than a sort of high level description of the process, are not aimed at a lay person like me. They’re aimed at properly skilled electricians (the guys who can install the wiring in a building) and maybe engineers.
I know that I have to supply that single line schematic, but I couldn’t draw it. Well… If pushed I could have a go, but I’m unlikely to get it right.
Unless you really have the qualifications & knowledge to do it yourself, you’re better off contracting with a company who does registrations. This is what I did. I signed a document making a specific person at the company (Pure Energy) my proxy, and everything was taken care of. Now this cost a few grand, but it meant I didn’t have to go to some office, stand in a queue, get to the front and then find out I’m in the wrong queue with the wrong form which I’m not allowed to sign anyway.
Since I work on contract, getting paid by the hour, this was a big plus for me. Pure Energy took care of all the paperwork and when that was all done and they were sure the system was compliant (right down to warning labels) they set a date for the City’s engineer and a representative from the installer to be present.
This representative was there so that the engineer could point to something on the schematic and say “please show me this”. The checks took about 20 minutes.
I really think guys like me with a little bit of knowledge are better off keeping out of this process. Or that the process will be a lot smoother without me sticking my oar in. What sounds strange to me, like nitpicking by politicians makes perfect sense to engineers.
What has happened, except in Cape Town, is that everybody has had the regulations in place but not publicised them, so folks get surprised when they get told that they were supposed to apply first. The utilities got caught out by the sudden growth in installations. Suddenly there was enough in place that Eskom could see a difference, but not know where it is.
So if you’re an electrical engineer and can hire a couple of people who can stand in queues for you, there’s a nice little earner for you.
We also have cowboy installers who tell you you don’t have to worry about all that, and elected representatives who, if you ask them, don’t give you a helpful answer like “I’ll ask City Power and get back to you”, they just shrug.
I have 3 clients that we filed applications with Eskom, two, besides the initial automatic reply, nothing, the third one we have a quote, but no explanation on what to do next, have sent numerous emails and made phone calls, nothing from Eskom side.
If only they were as easy as CoCT’s online application system !!!
This is the problem: process. COJ have regulations, and have had for some years.
But firstly they don’t spread the word. There was a tweet about it. They have banners & posters up at City Power offices. But I steer clear of those offices because I know it means a loooong wait.
I’m wrong, though. Last time I went there, to report a failed meter, I queued for maybe 15 minutes, left at 8:30, and a technician was at my house by 11:00.
OK… I’m not entirely wrong. When I went back & enquired about SSEG registration they all said “what’s that?”. I pointed at the posters & banners. “Sorry, sir, we don’t know anything about that.”
Somehow City Power came up with what seem to be a fairly sensible set of regulations, got them into the by-laws, and job well done. They don’t even seem to have notified council so that councillors can tell their constituents.
So that’s the second problem in COJ. It’s hard to get hold of the people who can help you and move things along.
Which I guess, in my case, was where Pure Energy were so helpful: they could get to those people.
Yeah. And Jhb used to be in the black. Now that we’re in debt we can’t buy power in from other sources. Unless there’s been some law changes I haven’t noticed.
But isn’t that was those OCGT units are for? They provide extra power when demand is high.
Interestingly Eskom issued a statment on January 10th. They even mention that they increased OCGT use for a short time.
Over the past seven days, the average total unplanned outages stood at 14 155MW, reflecting a slight improvement compared to the 14 611MW recorded during the same period last year—a reduction of 456MW. This performance is primarily due to delays in returning some units undergoing planned maintenance to service combined with the loss of generating units as a result of boiler tube leaks. As of today, unplanned outages are at 14 077MW, which is 1 077MW higher than the summer 2024 base case.
To meet demand under these circumstances, reliance was placed on a higher Open-Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) load factor for the period under review, which has since decreased. An additional 4 150MW of generation capacity is expected to return to service by Monday evening.
I was saying precisely this to my wife this afternoon. MyBB is all like “oooh we almost had load shedding”… and I’m like, yeah that’s what the peaking plants are for.
Or peaking the early morning when all wake up and late afternoon/early evening when all arrive home?
Peaking stations are designed/intended to run short bursts to alleviate the two daily spikes, or do I have that wrong?
Peaking plants are intended to be used for short periods. Typically hydro is used due to the quick ramp up time but the resevoirs they are fed by are only built for a limited period of generation.
Interesting how everyone lost their cool with Eskom asked increase … I said, blah blah blah, they are just scaring people, then when the increase is decided by NERSA, we all will give a sigh of relief … yeah, whatever.
Interesting about what NERSA is questioning about cost of maintenance of the two new stations, fact that the renewables have stalled due to network capacity reached …
Time for a new approach?
Get the Transmission Company going, get private sector involved, and be done with this Power Monopoly.
As @plonkster said on the Trump thread, there must be a better way.