{"id":6399,"date":"2024-10-30T10:21:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/?p=6399"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:21:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:21:01","slug":"eskom-proposes-charging-solar-panel-owners-more-for-electricity-fixed-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/eskom-proposes-charging-solar-panel-owners-more-for-electricity-fixed-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom proposes charging Solar Panel owners more for Electricity Fixed Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like Your Local Supermarket Charging You More For Vegetables if you Farm Your Own<\/em><\/p>\n

Consider this scenario:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your local supermarket experiences a shortage of fresh produce and, as a result, has to ‘ration’ it’s sales of fresh produce to consumers.<\/li>\n
  2. Savvy consumers resort to estacblishing their own home farms to grow their own fresh produce – relying on supermarkets for occasional ’emergency’ needs.<\/li>\n
  3. Savvy home farm consumers sell (but mostly give away) their surplus fresh produce to supermarkets.<\/li>\n
  4. Over time your supermarket recovers from their shortages, experiences a surplus that it cannot sell before the fresh produce goes off as many consumers have become DIY food suppliers.<\/li>\n
  5. Fearing a drop in profits supermarkets introduce an ’emergency usage add-on tariff’ for all consumers who were savvy enough to start their own home farms and who only occasionally buy essential fresh produce from supermarkets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now, I am sure that ever person who has ever had to actually work to put food on the table will realise just how patently ridiculous and potentially destructive of the financial well being of any business that the above scenario presents.<\/p>\n

    But, whenever Eskom proposes a similar scenario we treat it with a sense of inevitability. That the proposal will see the light of the day as the people in charge are limited by their inability to actually think like entrepreneurs, like business persons and like a caring corporate.<\/p>\n

    Eskom said it wanted to move to a tariff structure with significant fixed daily network charges independent of usage.<\/p>\n

    This means that South African households and businesses would have to pay a much higher fixed charge, regardless of whether they use electricity.<\/p>\n

    This would lead to those with solar panels paying far more than before, as they would need to pay daily fixed costs to Eskom to be connected to the grid.<\/p>\n

    Eskom forgets that technology is moving at a faster pace than the emptying of a gravy train by well connected politicians.<\/p>\n

    It has been estimated that under Eskom’s proposal, consumers using less than 100 kWh per month can expect an electricity bill increase of around 130% per month.<\/p>\n

    Maybe Eskom should be looking at the near future which could well be one in which the larger proportion of electricity generated and releases into the grid will come from private Small Scale Embedded Generation plants utilising Solar and Wind?<\/p>\n

    At present consumers have their day time electricity needs covered with Solar Panels, their night time needs covered with batteries but the gap in the market is for a system that will cover 24 hours in a day. At present only wind power offers a cost effective entry level point but has problems – bird strikes, noise, moving parts, 5 – 10 year life cycle for most small wind turbines.<\/p>\n

    Already consumers are asking about Wind Power and, the day when a wind generator is released that is powerful, quiet, compact and offering a reasonable ROI is when we will have our next explosion of renewable energy installations. Couple such a beast with solar panels and a small battery or a small generator or an Electric Vehicle with Vehicle to Grid capabilities and the ability to cut that umbilical cord to the grid becomes a reality for most consumers.<\/p>\n

    As per normal, Eskom is stuck in a slow grinding decision process that will render their proposal moot when affordable technology catches up.<\/p>\n

    \"Solar<\/a>
    A solar farm that is more than just solar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Like Your Local Supermarket Charging You More For Vegetables if you Farm Your Own Consider this scenario: Your local supermarket experiences a shortage of fresh produce and, as a result, has to ‘ration’ it’s sales of fresh produce to consumers. Savvy consumers resort to estacblishing their own home farms to grow their own fresh produce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[37],"class_list":{"0":"post-6399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-solar","7":"tag-eskom","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Alan","author_link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/author\/alan\/"},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HvVd-1Fd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":304,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/sell-electricity-to-the-grid\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":0},"title":"Sell electricity to the grid","author":"Alan","date":"28 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in September, an office park in Observatory became the first customer of the City of Cape Town\u2019s electricity department to legally sell surplus energy back into the grid. The 1.2MW Black River Park Solar Project switched on following two years of pilot programs devised by the city to see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/what-parkhurst-did-next-smart-grids-solar-power-and-a-virtual-neighbourhood-watch\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":1},"title":"What Parkhurst did next: Smart grids, solar power and a virtual neighbourhood watch","author":"Alan","date":"17 August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe project to take Parkhurst off-grid has really turned into a \u2018smart grid\u2019 project,\u201d says Ryan Beech, who has been leading the Parkhurst 2020 project. Beech is an entrepreneur who runs a robotics and engineering company, Ryonics, and was instrumental in the original fibre plans. Parkhurst 2020 began as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/solar-reaches-parity-with-eskom\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":2},"title":"Solar reaches parity with Eskom","author":"Alan","date":"16 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This article in the Mail and Guardian is probably one of the most balanced that we have read to date: Solar power to reach its zenith. Lisa Steyn writes: Eskom may be unable to avert an energy crisis, but South African households and businesses can generate power on their rooftops\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":244,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/daily-maverick-comments-on-eskoms-promise-of-load-shedding-now-high-electricity-tariffs-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":3},"title":"Daily Maverick comments on Eskom’s promise of load-shedding now, high electricity tariffs later","author":"Alan","date":"19 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Most of the maintenance is done during summer, Matona said, as the reduced demand allows them to take down as many units as possible. However due to the constraints in supply, Eskom has exhausted its reserves and therefore maintenance needs to take place during rotational load-shedding. It is not known\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":150,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/eskom-playing-catch-up-to-nelson-mandela-bay-over-solar-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":4},"title":"Eskom playing catch up to Nelson Mandela Bay over solar power","author":"Alan","date":"6 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Johannesburg - South Africa\u2019s energy regulator is looking at a framework that would enable homes and businesses to receive credits for feeding surplus power they generate from rooftop solar panels back into the constrained electricity grid. \u201cThere is growing interest from South African electricity customers to install rooftop photovoltaic systems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62,"url":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/the-cost-of-alternative-energy-sources\/","url_meta":{"origin":6399,"position":5},"title":"The cost of alternative energy sources","author":"Alan","date":"12 December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Green Energy South Africa Roy Potter, consumers will have to fork out as much as R250,000 to run a household using an alternative source of energy such as batteries and solar panels. BUT, Port Elizabeth based Straton Solar aims for a price of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar"","block_context":{"text":"Solar","link":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/category\/solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6402,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions\/6402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}