Export assessment
R2,500 fixed
Power comes in on overhead wires, or your supply likely needs an upgrade. We price the work before you commit.
- Counted towards your project if you go ahead
Cape Town · Solar export activation
Sell your extra solar power to the City. We'll sort the paperwork.
The City of Cape Town credits R1.33 for every kWh your solar sends back, straight onto your municipal bill. But only once your system's registered and on the City's two-way meter (an AMI meter). We get you registered, start to finish.
Free · Your full cost on screen · Nothing to pay unless you book
~R1,000credited in December on our co-founder's own 10kW system
How it works
You won't need to find an engineer.
The City needs a registered engineer to sign off your system, and there's no shortcut around that. The meter installation also stalls unless someone keeps chasing it. We handle the first and chase the second.
A few quick questions about your property and your system, and you see your full cost before you pay anything: our fee, the City meter and any building work. If it adds up, you pick a day for our site inspection.
We come to you. We photograph the installation to the standard the engineer needs — inverter markings, DB board, isolators, earthing, array — and put the ECSA-registered professional in place. Finding that engineer independently is where most homeowner attempts stall. You are not sourcing one, briefing one, or explaining your inverter to anyone.
Once permission to install is granted, the City begins writing to you directly as the account holder. Forward those to us and the City redirects to us from there. We handle the queries, the commissioning documents, the AMI meter process and activation.
None of this is difficult on its own. It is long, particular, and easy to stall on once. That is the part we take. See all twelve City steps, and who does each one.
Check if your home qualifies
Your full cost before you pay anything
Your missed credits
How much credit is your roof missing out on?
Use your system size and installation month for a directional estimate. Your actual export depends on generation, orientation, battery behaviour and how much solar you use at home.
Approval typically takes 6–12 weeks.Credits begin only after approval, metering and connection. Earlier exports are not credited retrospectively.
Estimated export~440 kWh/month
Potential monthly credit~R585
Potential credits since installation~R7,020
Have that ~R7,020 checked properly.Check if your home qualifies
Estimate uses 55 kWh of monthly export per installed kW and the 2026/27 non-VAT residential rate of R1.3298/kWh. It is not a quote or guarantee.
Check if your home qualifiesWhy now
Every month you're not registered is solar value you can't get back later.
The highest-yield months run November to February. A 10kW system earns roughly R1,000 a month across them, against about R730 averaged over the year.
Approval and connection take 6–12 weeks from a complete application. An application started in August is exporting for all four of those months. One started in November is exporting for the last of them, if that. The difference is not three months of credits — it is most of a peak season, and the next one is a year away.
The feed-in tariff and the SSEG incentive remain subject to annual Council review.
~R1,000
Credited in December
- System
- ~10kW
- Registered
- 2025
- Year-round average
- ~R730 a month
Our own system · Cape Town
December was the month it clicked. Roughly a thousand rand credited, in the middle of summer, from surplus we weren't using anyway. It won't be that every month — but it made the whole thing feel finished.
Co-founder, Grid Okes · ~10kW system · Registered 2025
Summer months generate roughly 35–40% above the annual average. Across a full year, a system this size averages closer to R730 a month. This is our co-founder's own registration, completed before we began taking clients. We opened to clients in June 2026 and have four Cape Town registrations under way.
What we charge
Fixed fees, and your full cost before you pay anything.
The price depends on your property, mostly how power reaches the house. Your answers put you in one of these, and you see our fee, the City meter and any building work before you commit.
Standard export
from R5,000
Power comes in underground, your inverter is on the City's approved list and you have a Certificate of Compliance. A meter on a house wall or inside the property is fine: the City installs a kiosk for the new one, at no extra cost to you.
- Nothing to pay when you book
- R2,000 after our first site inspection
- R3,000 when your meter installation is scheduled
Complex export
from R5,000 + building work
For assessed homes that go ahead: the standard registration plus one fixed price for the building work. No open-ended contractor bills.
- If you go ahead, your R2,500 assessment fee is deducted
- One fixed price, quoted before you commit
Every export activation includes
- Eligibility and inverter validation — we confirm your inverter is on the City's approved list before anything is submitted
- Supply verification — breaker rating, phase and overhead-supply check
- On-site inspection — we come to the property and photograph the installation to the engineer's standard
- ECSA professional sign-off — coordinated with our contracted registered engineer
- Application, submission and City queries — we hold the file and answer, so you don't
- Metering and activation tracking — through to meter installation and your first credited month
- Tariff guidance — the Home User move, and your Time-of-Use position
- A check of your first two or three bills after activation — credits, tariff and meter fee, at no charge
What changes the price
Only a few things, and you see each one before you pay. No hourly billing, and never a percentage of someone else's quote.
- Supply upgrade coordination: R1,000–R1,500 + City charges — Your inverter is larger than your supply allows, so the supply is upgraded before we submit.
- Certificate of Compliance: R2,000 — Your solar has no Certificate of Compliance. We arrange a registered electrician to inspect it and issue one; any repairs it needs are quoted first.
- Clearing an old application: Free, up to R500 — An earlier stalled submission blocks the new one.
City and contractor costs are passed through at cost and shown separately: the City AMI meter (R6,651.90, single-phase), any City quote for your property, and electrician or contractor quotes. We never mark them up. The one exception is a complex export's building project, which we sell as a single fixed price you can hold us to.
The numbers
What it costs, and what you get back
Upfront cost for a standard export, paid once
R11,651.90
Everything you pay to get a standard single-phase home registered and exporting.
How we get to R11,651.90
| City two-way meter (AMI meter), incl. VATCharged by the City, passed through at cost | R6,651.90 |
| Grid Okes, after our first site inspectionSite inspection, engineer and application | R2,000 |
| Grid Okes, when your meter installation is scheduledThe rest of our fee | R3,000 |
| Total, once-off | R11,651.90 |
Every month after that
~R724 back on your bill
Estimated net credit for a 10kW system, after the City's monthly meter fee.
How we get to ~R724
| Export credit, 2026/27 residential rateWhat the City credits for each kWh you send back | R1.33 / kWh |
| Estimated monthly credit, 10kW systemAbout 550 kWh exported a month × R1.33 | ~R731 |
| AMI meter administration feeCharged monthly by the City | −R6.80 |
| Net credit, per month | ~R724 |
This is a yearly average. Summer months run higher: our own 10kW system was credited about R1,000 in December. For a figure for your own system, try the export credit estimator.
The meter is a City requirement for any registered export system, not a Grid Okes charge — you pay it whichever way the application is submitted. It is also the only route onto the City's residential Time-of-Use tariff, which lets a household with a battery buy at off-peak rates instead of peak ones. We tell you whether that is worth doing for your property.
The full cost detail, including how the credit is calculated →
The rest of our fee falls due only when your meter installation is scheduled. If a rejection is within our control — documentation, submission, or a compliance issue our screening should have caught — it is never invoiced, and refunded if you have already paid it. The R2,000 invoiced after our first site inspection covers that inspection and the ECSA professional, who is paid for the assessment and not for the outcome. Property-specific requirements and the City's own approval decisions sit outside that.
Questions
What people usually ask
A Certificate of Compliance is not the same as City SSEG approval. If you have a commissioning approval letter and export credits already appear on your municipal statement, the process is complete. If not, we can check your status before you pay anything.
It depends on your property, and you see the full cost before you pay anything. A standard export activation is R5,000. Nothing is due when you book: R2,000 is invoiced after our first site inspection, which covers that inspection and the ECSA-registered professional, and R3,000 when your meter installation is scheduled. The engineer is paid for the assessment, not for the outcome, so the first payment stands either way. If your supply comes in on overhead wires or likely needs an upgrade, you start with a fixed-price R2,500 assessment instead, counted towards the project if you go ahead. Each payment is invoiced when it falls due.
Yes. Every export customer needs a City-installed bi-directional AMI meter, currently R6,651.90 for a single-phase supply or R10,000 for three-phase, including VAT, paid for by the property owner. An overhead-supply conversion or remedial electrical work can add cost. A meter on a house wall or inside the property does not: the City installs a kiosk for the new meter, at no extra cost to you. Your check flags the likely ones before you pay anything. The City's and contractors' own quotations are passed through at cost, never marked up. Every conditional cost is set out in full here.
Yes, but the account changes. Export customers move to a billed Home User SSEG account with an AMI meter, so there are no more tokens to buy and enter. Credits are then applied monthly against your consolidated municipal account — electricity, rates, water and solid waste.
If your property is valued at R1 million or more you are already billed on Home User, and its R424.30 monthly fixed charge is already on your statement. Below that threshold you would be moving onto it, which is a real change to your bill — the fixed charge is higher and the per-unit rate lower, so whether you come out ahead depends on how much you use. We model both before you commit.
If your property is valued at R1 million or more you are already billed on Home User, and its R424.30 monthly fixed charge is already on your statement. Below that threshold you would be moving onto it, which is a real change to your bill — the fixed charge is higher and the per-unit rate lower, so whether you come out ahead depends on how much you use. We model both before you commit.
The City introduced an opt-in residential Time-of-Use tariff on 1 July 2026. It charges separately for peak, standard and off-peak periods rather than a single flat rate, and it requires the same AMI meter your export activation installs.
It suits households with battery storage that can shift consumption out of peak periods. It suits a home without a battery far less, and the tariff carries no free basic electricity allocation. The City moves nobody across automatically — it takes a written request.
We model both tariffs against your property during the assessment and tell you which is better for you. If Time-of-Use is the answer, we submit the request. Time-of-Use feed-in rates are not yet in service; the City has said they will follow once its systems have been tested, so export credits are at the standard rate either way.
It suits households with battery storage that can shift consumption out of peak periods. It suits a home without a battery far less, and the tariff carries no free basic electricity allocation. The City moves nobody across automatically — it takes a written request.
We model both tariffs against your property during the assessment and tell you which is better for you. If Time-of-Use is the answer, we submit the request. Time-of-Use feed-in rates are not yet in service; the City has said they will follow once its systems have been tested, so export credits are at the standard rate either way.
A complete application typically takes 6–12 weeks through approval, metering and connection, but City timelines and property-specific work can extend this. We track the file and respond to queries; we do not promise a date controlled by the City. See the twelve steps that make up those weeks.
Mostly not. We come to the property and photograph the installation ourselves, so the engineer's evidence does not depend on your installer being responsive. The one thing we need from you is your inverter and panel spec sheets, and those are usually already in your installation handover pack — we approach your installer only if something is missing. Some properties do need remedial work before approval. We tell you what is needed and manage the communication either way.
Buyers and conveyancers increasingly ask for evidence that grid-tied solar is authorised. Completing the City process gives you a documented approval trail and reduces the risk of registration paperwork delaying a future sale.
Most rejections are correctable. Missing documents and technical mismatches usually are, and we explain the reason and what remediation requires.
If the rejection was caused by something within our control — documentation, submission, or a compliance issue our screening should have caught — you are not invoiced for the rest of our fee, and we refund it if you have already paid.
If it was caused by the property itself, we tell you plainly what the City requires and what it is likely to cost. The R2,000 invoiced after our first site inspection covers it and the ECSA-registered professional, who is paid for the assessment whether or not the application succeeds.
If the rejection was caused by something within our control — documentation, submission, or a compliance issue our screening should have caught — you are not invoiced for the rest of our fee, and we refund it if you have already paid.
If it was caused by the property itself, we tell you plainly what the City requires and what it is likely to cost. The R2,000 invoiced after our first site inspection covers it and the ECSA-registered professional, who is paid for the assessment whether or not the application succeeds.
No. Grid Okes is an independent service by Edna Labs (Pty) Ltd. We prepare and manage applications through the City's official process and coordinate a contracted ECSA professional, but the City makes the approval and metering decisions.