Cape Town: City of Cape Town has started a programme ‘Cash for power’ under which a total of 432 Cape Town households have applied to earn cash from selling excess solar power to the city that they have generated. The applications will be accessed as per their eligibility.
Reportedly, the closure of the first window for residential seller applications began in March. Following this, Cape Town has become the first metro city to buy excess solar PV power from small-scale generators in exchange or return for municipal bill credits and cash.
A power sellers total municipal bill was first credited automatically down to zero with the option to apply to earn cash beyond a zero balance. Then the businesses have been able to earn cash for power that has been sold, since June 2023, with an available option for households to also earn cash from it.
Under the Cash for Power programme by the City of Cape Town, the businesses and households have already earned over R30.8 million. This was mainly earned in municipal bill credits, since they started of the 2022-23 financial year until April 01, 2024.
As per the sources, the figure consists of R23.5 million on the feed-in-tariff, plus a further count of R7.3 million. When included the 25c per kWh incentive, the city encouraged more participation.
As per the record until April 01, 2024, 1,537 sellers have been benefitted via their excess generation. Out of these sellers, 910 are residential and 627 are commercial or industrial.
Considering this Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that it is exciting to see hundreds of households applying to see if they are eligible to earn actual cash for selling their solar power to the city, as being the first one for South Africa.
Earlier the sellers were only credited against their electricity bill up to a zero balance but they have made key policy changes to enable the total municipal bill to be credited as well as enabling the cash payouts.
Mayor Lewis added, “We have also launched a new online portal to make people register their solar PV system easier than ever and very soon we will share good news on the rollout of a cheaper bi-directional meter to feed power back into the grid.”
“The city will buy as much solar power as households and businesses that can sell to us under the Cash for Power programme. Not only are we adding crucial kilowatts to our grid, we are also putting money back in the pockets of Capetonians,” said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
