Last reviewed against the City’s documents on

Cape Town · Businesses with solar

How a Cape Town business sells its solar to the City

The City of Cape Town buys the surplus power a business’s solar sends to the grid. It credits it against the whole municipal account, and once the account is covered it can pay the rest out in cash. To get there, the system has to be authorised for export, metered with a City AMI meter, and signed off by an engineer.

This page sets out the City’s process for a commercial or industrial customer, step by step, with what the City pays and the conditions that change the picture. Every point traces back to a City document, listed at the end.

City steps
12
Approval letters
2
Export credit
R1.21/kWh
Cash paid above
R5,000

R1.21/kWh is the City’s 2026/27 rate for non-residential customers, excluding VAT: Feed-in Tariff 1 at 96.18c plus the 25c feed-in incentive, which Council reviews every year. The City adds VAT only if your business is a registered VAT vendor, and it does not ask for an invoice.

Who this applies to

Businesses on a City of Cape Town supply, with systems under 1 MVA

The City’s SSEG requirements cover commercial and industrial customers on low- and medium-voltage supplies, for systems with a generation capacity under 1 MVA. A system of 1 MVA or more is handled under the City’s Technical Standard for Interconnection of Embedded Generation (EEB 705) instead.

Two groups follow a different route:

  • Eskom-supplied premises. Some properties inside the metro are in Eskom’s supply area. They apply to Eskom, not the City.
  • Customers on the SPU3 tariff. The City’s non-residential feed-in tariff does not apply to them.

Owners and tenants

The application has to be signed by the property owner. A tenant, an installer or a consultant can apply on the owner’s behalf with a letter of proxy. The export credit is offset against the City account the meter is on, so where a tenant holds that account in its own name, the credit comes off the tenant’s account.

The City’s process

These are the City’s steps for authorising a commercial system to export, in the order it runs them. The tags on each step say who usually does the work.

  1. Check the inverter and the size limits

    Your installerECSA engineer

    The inverter has to be on the City’s list of approved grid-tied inverters. Then the system has to fit the City’s generation limits for your supply: a low-voltage business on a shared feeder follows the City’s table up to a 100 A three-phase supply, and above that the limits in NRS 097-2-3 apply.

    For a larger system, especially one above 350 kVA, the City is likely to need an engineering study of what it does to the local network before it decides.

  2. Clearance from other City departments, where it applies

    You

    Some installations need prior approval from Planning and Building Development Management or City Health. Rooftop solar usually does not, unless it falls outside the City’s height parameters or the building is heritage-affected. Where clearance is needed, the City only considers the application once it is in hand.

  3. Submit the online SSEG application

    YouYour installer

    The application goes in on the City’s e-Services platform. It asks for the system type and capacity, battery storage, whether you will export, a preliminary circuit diagram showing the point of connection, the earthing arrangement, the electrical parameters, and the protection details: synchronising, anti-islanding and power quality.

    It has to be signed by the property owner. Anyone applying on the owner’s behalf, including a tenant or an installer, attaches a letter of proxy.

  4. Grid study, if the City requires one

    The City

    Where the City needs to model the system’s impact on the network, its engineers run the study. The fee depends on the system’s capacity, is set in the City’s miscellaneous tariffs, and is paid by the applicant. So is any change the network needs upstream of your point of connection.

  5. Permission to Install is issued

    The City

    The City tells you the outcome by email. A successful application gets a Permission to Install letter, and only then may the system be installed. For a new system, nothing should be bought before this letter: the City does not guarantee approval and is not liable for equipment bought ahead of it.

    The registration has to be completed within three months of the date on this letter, or the application is cancelled.

  6. Install and test

    Your installer

    The system is installed and tested. It may connect to the network temporarily for commissioning, and must then stay disconnected until the City issues Commissioning Approval. A system found generating before then gets a contravention notice and a fee on the account.

  7. Certificate of Compliance

    Your installer

    A registered electrical contractor issues the Certificate of Compliance for the installation under SANS 10142-1. It covers the wiring; it is not the City’s approval.

  8. ECSA professional commissioning report

    ECSA engineer

    Commissioning has to be done by a professional registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa, who completes and signs the City’s grid-tied SSEG installation commissioning report.

  9. Sign the Supplemental Contract

    You

    The Supplemental Contract governs the business’s relationship with the City as a generator. It is completed with the City’s Service Connection Planning branch, and it stays in force for as long as the system exists.

  10. Submit the commissioning pack

    YouYour installer

    The signed commissioning report goes in with the final circuit diagram, the Certificate of Compliance and the signed Supplemental Contract. The City may inspect the installation.

  11. Metering quotation, meter box and payment

    The CityYou

    Exporting needs a bi-directional AMI meter, which the City supplies and installs at the customer’s cost. The City issues a Metering Quotation letter, and you pay it as the letter instructs.

    The meter goes in a meter box on the street-front property boundary, facing outwards and fitted with a City lock, provided at your cost to the City’s specification. An overhead supply has to be replaced with an underground cable from the boundary, also at your cost.

  12. Meter installed, Commissioning Approval, export begins

    The City

    Once payment is received and the metering position is ready, the City installs and commissions the meter and issues the Commissioning Approval letter. The feed-in tariff applies from the date the AMI meter is commissioned.

    Adding panels, changing the inverter or resizing the system later needs a new application, made as a system modification or expansion.

What the City pays

You stay on your tariff, with export added

A commercial or industrial customer stays on its existing consumption tariff. Registering for export adds two things: a monthly AMI administration fee, and a rate per kWh at which the City buys what you export.

Three feed-in tariffs

  • Feed-in Tariff 1 — 96.18c per kWh. The default. The green attributes of the power you export pass to the City.
  • Feed-in Tariff 2 — 68.46c per kWh. For a business that wants to keep and claim the green attributes of what it exports, for example for its own carbon or sustainability reporting.
  • Time-of-use feed-in tariff. Pays different rates by season and time of day, for customers on a time-of-use consumption tariff, with the green attributes staying with the customer. The City will open it once its billing systems are tested.

The 25c per kWh feed-in incentive is added to all of them. All figures are the City’s 2026/27 rates, excluding VAT.

From credit to cash: Cash for Power

Export credit is first offset against the whole municipal account, not only the electricity charges. A business can then sell what is left over to the City for cash, under the City’s Cash for Power programme. To qualify, a business needs:

  • an approved SSEG system;
  • registration as a service provider on the City’s supplier database;
  • the supply chain declarations procurement law requires, such as tax clearance;
  • to take part in the City’s Request for Expression of Interest; and
  • authorisation from the City’s Bid Adjudication Committee.

The City then pays the credit left after the offset monthly, on amounts over R5,000. A smaller balance is held until it passes R5,000, and paid then.

If it applies to you

These do not apply to every business. Open only the ones that describe yours.

Larger systems and grid studiesIf your system is above 350 kVA

The City says specialist engineering studies are likely for commercial systems on low- and medium-voltage supplies, especially above 350 kVA of inverter rating. The study works out what the system does to the local network, and the applicant pays for it at the City’s published fee for that capacity.

If the network needs strengthening upstream of your point of connection to take the system, that cost is the applicant’s too. Budget the time as well: the study has to finish before the City decides the application.

Meter position and overhead supplyIf your meter is not at the boundary

An exporting customer has to provide a meter box on the street-front property boundary, to the City’s specification, facing outwards and locked with a City lock. A meter inside the building or behind a gate has to move.

An overhead connection, from the street front or mid-block, has to be replaced with an underground cable from the boundary. Both are at the customer’s cost, separate from the City’s meter quotation.

CurtailmentIf your area’s network is constrained

Where the network falls below the statutory quality-of-supply standards, the City can cap how much embedded generators produce at peak. It expects these limits to be temporary and applied only in abnormal conditions, but they are part of the terms.

Using the power at another site: wheelingIf you have more than one property

Under the SSEG rules, power has to be used on the property that generates it or sold to the City. Sending it to a different property, known as wheeling, is a separate arrangement, allowed only where both the generator and the consumer meet the local and national regulatory and technical requirements.

Selling or buying the buildingIf the property changes hands

When an authorised system’s property is transferred, the new owner signs a new Supplemental Contract. If the system was never authorised, the new owner becomes responsible for getting it authorised or having it decommissioned, and the Certificate of Compliance for the transfer has to state whether the system is connected.

When a customer leaves the SSEG tariff, any remaining credit is refunded on written request, provided there is no other municipal debt.

City of Cape Town figures for non-residential customers, 2026/27, excluding VAT. The feed-in incentive is reviewed every year by Council, and all tariffs are set annually by Council and approved by NERSA.

Solar on your business? We’ll deal with the City for you.

We register business systems with the City, so the power you don’t use earns credit on your municipal account. Leave your first name and WhatsApp number for a free 20-minute call, and a rough estimate of what your solar could take off your account.

Get my free estimate

Free  ·  A 20-minute call  ·  An estimate, not a promise

Where this comes from

Sources

Everything on this page traces back to a published document. These are the ones it rests on, so you can check any of it yourself rather than taking our word for it.

City of Cape Town — primary

This page describes the City of Cape Town’s SSEG process for commercial and industrial customers, current to 8 October 2026. The City publishes its own requirements, forms and approved-inverter list at capetown.gov.za, and reviews its requirements and tariffs periodically. Grid Okes is an independent service by Edna Labs (Pty) Ltd and is not affiliated with the City of Cape Town. Approval, metering and tariff decisions rest with the City.