Registering a solar system: Eskom, your municipality and NERSA

Who must register, and with whom

• Every grid-connected system. Eskom’s rule, which follows the regulator’s registration rules for distributors, is that all households and small businesses with systems below 100 kVA must register, even if they do not export electricity. The reason is safety: an unregistered inverter can back-feed a line that a technician believes is dead.
• Eskom customers register with Eskom, online or through the provincial SSEG email addresses on its website, up to 100 kVA. From 100 kVA to 1 MW the system registers with Eskom and with the National Energy Regulator, NERSA, under Schedule 2 of the Act.
• Municipal customers register with the municipality: City Power in Johannesburg, the City of Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and the rest each run their own application, on their own forms, with their own inverter list and meter requirements.
• Off-grid systems with no connection to the supplier’s network are exempt. Eskom asks for a declaration on its off-grid form and proof of full independence from its supply.

The three documents

Eskom has cut its list to three, and the municipalities ask for the same core set.

1. The electrical certificate of compliance, signed by a registered person, covering the inverter, its circuit and the earthing. A solar system is an alteration to the installation, so a supplementary certificate is required under the Electrical Installation Regulations even where the house already has one. The certificate of compliance guide explains who may sign it.
2. The NRS 097-2-1 type test certificate for the inverter, from the equipment supplier. NRS 097-2-1 is the South African grid-connection specification, and inverters are tested against it by model. Cape Town and Eskom both keep approved lists; an inverter that is on a European list but not on the NRS list will be refused.
3. The embedded generation installation test report, on Eskom’s form. Since Eskom’s 2025 simplification this may be signed by an installation electrician or a master installation electrician registered with the Department of Employment and Labour. A single phase tester may not sign it, and an ECSA-registered engineer is no longer needed for these small systems.

With those in hand Eskom’s process is three steps: submit your details online, upload the documents, and receive approval and a smart meter installation, which it schedules at no cost while the waiver lasts.

What it costs

On 26 March 2026 Eskom extended its fee waiver from 31 March to 30 September 2026, and on 30 September 2026 it extended it again, until further notice. For Eskom customers with systems up to 50 kVA, all registration and connection fees and the smart meter are waived, which Eskom values at up to R10 000 for urban and residential customers and up to R36 000 for rural customers. The waiver covers customer owned systems up to 50 kVA connected directly to Eskom’s distribution network. Eskom can end it on notice, so confirm the position with Eskom on the day you apply. Non-residential customers got reduced connection charges, and a prepaid option is being rolled out so residential customers can keep prepaid metering.

In September 2026 Eskom dropped its earlier threat to fine or disconnect homes that fail to register, and stopped asking for an engineer registered with ECSA to sign off residential systems; a certificate of compliance from a qualified installation electrician or electrical contractor registered with the Department of Employment and Labour is now accepted. Eskom still says it will cut supply to a home whose installation it judges unsafe, and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse disputes that Eskom has the power to force registration at all. Registration remains Eskom’s stated rule, so the safe course is to register.

Municipalities set their own charges. The City of Cape Town, for example, requires a bi-directional advanced meter for SSEG customers, has capacity limits for residential systems, and pays for exported energy at a feed-in tariff it publishes each year, and it has run its own fee waiver alongside Eskom’s. Check the current application guide on the City’s electricity services page before you install, because the inverter list and the meter rules change.

What the installer must hold

• A registered electrical contractor doing the work, and a registered person certifying it. Both are legal requirements under the Electrical Installation Regulations, and neither is optional because the product is solar.
• SANS 10142-1 is the standard the certificate is issued against, and it now includes the requirements for photovoltaic installations. Installers who learned on the old edition catch up or fail inspections.
• The SAPVIA PV GreenCard is the industry’s voluntary quality programme: a two-day assessment, one day of theory and one on a practical roof, run through accredited centres. It is not a legal requirement, but banks financing systems, insurers and larger clients increasingly ask for it, and the GreenCard installer’s report is a good handover document.
• COIDA and the usual employer registrations, because roof work is exactly the kind of injury the Compensation Fund exists for.

Tax, briefly

The household solar rebate for individuals, 25 percent of the cost of new panels up to R15 000, applied only to panels brought into use between 1 March 2023 and 29 February 2024, and is gone. For businesses, the section 12B allowance still lets the cost of renewable generation assets be written off, and the temporary 125 percent version applied to assets brought into use between 1 March 2023 and 28 February 2025. A business installing solar today claims the standard section 12B deduction; ask your accountant which rate applies to your asset and year.

What actually goes wrong

• An unregistered system found during a meter change or a fault call. Eskom has withdrawn its threat to fine or disconnect homes for not registering, but it still says it will cut supply to an installation it judges unsafe, and the customer is then applying under pressure, and charges may apply if the waiver has ended by then.
• An inverter not on the NRS 097-2-1 list. The application is refused until the inverter is replaced. Check the list before you buy, not after.
• A test report signed by a single phase tester, or a certificate that does not mention the PV circuit at all.
• A municipal customer applying to Eskom, or the other way round. You register with whoever sends your electricity bill.
• Insurance repudiated after a fire because there was no certificate of compliance for the solar installation.

Frequently asked questions