Eskom has kickstarted its campaign to encourage registration and compliance, for households using Small-Scale Embedded Generators (SSEG).
Eskom’s Daphne Mokwena, said residential customers with unregistered SSEG installations up to 50kW (typically 5 to 10kW for households) could qualify for an exemption from registration-related fees (application, tariff conversion, and connection fees) until March 2026. After this period, standard charges will apply.
All SSEG installations that operate alongside Eskom’s supply, even those not exporting power back into the grid, must be registered with Eskom or NERSA.
She said generators that operate entirely off-grid and are not connected to Eskom’s electricity network are not required to register. However, owners must provide proof that their systems function independently from Eskom.
The SSEG initiative was launched during severe loadshedding periods when Eskom decided to waive connection charges for residential rooftop solar installations.
Eskom said this decision was in response to the Energy Action Plan and supported incentives such as the tax rebate for solar installations offered by the South African Revenue Services. The goal was to help customers mitigate the impact of loadshedding on their daily lives.
Now, with more and more solar systems pushing energy onto the grid, Mokwena said the safety of the grid has become a critical focus for both performance and the safety of staff working on it.
More information : https://www.eskom.co.za/distribution/small-scale-embedded-generators/.