Cape Town feed-in tariff explained: selling your solar power back to the City

Cape Town is one of the few municipalities in South Africa with a properly running scheme to buy excess solar power from homes. If your system is registered with the City as Small-Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG), the units you export during the day are credited back on your municipal electricity account — so your solar pays you back even when you're at work while the sun is up.

What the feed-in credit is worth

The City pays a small-scale feed-in tariff per exported kilowatt-hour, credited directly on your electricity account. The rate is set in the City's annual tariff book — it changes each July with the new tariff year, so always check the current City of Cape Town tariff document for the exact c/kWh figure rather than trusting an article (including this one).

The important principle: the feed-in rate is lower than what you pay to buy electricity from the City. That's normal worldwide. It means the smart money is on using your own power first (that's what the battery is for) and treating exports as a bonus, not the business case. The real saving remains every unit you generate and use yourself instead of buying at the full domestic tariff.

Registration is not optional

Legal, grid-tied solar in Cape Town must be registered with the City as SSEG. The City requires an approved inverter (on its list of compliant equipment), a signed application, an installation certificate of compliance from a registered electrician, and commissioning sign-off. Installing unregistered grid-tied solar is a violation of the City's by-law, and unregistered systems get picked up — the City actively surveys neighbourhoods for arrays.

Once registered, you can also opt in to the feed-in arrangement so exports are credited rather than simply limited to zero.

What it costs and how long it takes

We handle the entire SSEG registration for you. It's included in every solar package we install — or from R4,500 excluding VAT on its own if you have an existing system that needs to be legalised.

Processing times vary with the City's workload, and the City publishes its current fees in its tariff documents. What we can promise is that nothing gets switched on until it's compliant — your system is legal, insurable and eligible for feed-in credits from day one.

Read the full step-by-step

We've written a complete guide to registering solar panels with the City of Cape Town — every step, what documents are involved, and what happens if you skip it.