Installation of Solar Systems
In keeping with the Government’s initiative to promote the installation of solar systems, the Swartland Munisipality (SM) has recently aligned their policies and by-laws to cater for such installations.
It is imperative that you register your system with SM. This needs to be done for safety reasons and also to ensure correct electricity billing.
All the relevant documents can be found on the SM website at www.swartland.org.za. For your convenience the documents are detailed below:
- Circular to Customers regarding Installation of SSEG Systems.
This document explains what a SSEG is an what procedures are to be followed to install such SSEG’s, such as Solar Systems. - Requirement for Embedded Generation.
This document primarily sets out the requirements and application process of the Municipality in connecting all forms of Embedded Generation (EG) to the municipal electricity network.
It is a lengthy document but user friendly.
- Grace period to Register Existing SSEG.
As customers may be unaware of the requirement to register and obtain authorisation for their SSEG, the Municipality is allowing a grace period for existing systems to be registered and authorised. To benefit from this grace period, property owners must apply for authorisation of their SSEG system with the Municipality by 30 June 2023. After the grace period, the Municipality will be implementing a service fee (equal to the Tampering Fee) for the disconnection of unauthorised SSEG connections. The supply of electricity to the property in question may be disconnected and only reconnected once the Municipality is satisfied that the SSEG system is either disconnected, decommissioned, or authorised and that the service fee has been paid. - Application form for Connection of Embedded Generation.
It is recommended that this form is filled in by your installer/supplier/service provider who is familiar with the technical details of the intended generation technology.
A ‘Competent Person’ is also required to sign-off of the Commissioning Report, but such sign-off is not required at the application stage.
- SSEG Installation Commissioning Report.
Once your application has been approved (which happens within a day or two) SM will forward this document to you to be completed by your installer/supplier or other competent person, which must then be forwarded to SM together with a copy of the Circuit Diagram (compiled by your installer) and a copy of the Certificate of Compliance (COC). Your installer/supplier will arrange with a ‘Competent Person’ to complete the COC. - SSEG: Commissioning Approval to Connect your SSEG to the Grid.
Once SM has received the Installation Commissioning Report, Circuit Diagram and COC, this Commissioning Approval document will be issued to you as proof of your Solar System registration at SM.
Although the above process may seems to be cumbersome, it is actually quite simple with all correspondence to SM are attended to almost immediately.