Eskom has extended its waiver of solar registration charges beyond the 30 September deadline, announcing that fee relief will continue until further notice, the latest retreat in a registration campaign that has drawn sustained criticism from advocacy groups and legal questions about the utility’s authority.
The announcement on Wednesday 30 September means eligible customers with grid-tied solar systems of up to 50 kVA connected directly to Eskom’s network can still register without paying registration-related charges. But the utility stressed that the extension does not change the underlying regulatory requirement for qualifying grid-connected generation facilities to be registered.
Third retreat in a year
It is the third time Eskom has softened its position. The original deadline of 31 March was pushed to 30 September following widespread public opposition. In August, Eskom confirmed it would not fine or disconnect customers who missed the deadline, bowing to pressure from civil society organisations. Now the fee waiver itself has been extended indefinitely.
The waiver covers registration and connection charges, including a smart meter valued at up to R10,000 for urban and residential customers and R36,000 for rural customers.
OUTA welcomes progress but says bigger questions remain
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), which has led opposition to the requirement, said the indefinite waiver was meaningful progress but argued that the bigger question remained unresolved. OUTA said it would continue engaging Eskom on the legal and practical basis for compulsory registration of small, non-exporting household systems.
OUTA chief executive Wayne Duvenage said, “This is good progress, and we appreciate that Eskom has listened to the concerns raised by OUTA and the public.”
“People have spent significant amounts of their own money installing solar because electricity has become increasingly expensive and, for many years, unreliable. They should not then be penalised with unnecessary fees and administrative hurdles for reducing their dependence on the grid.”
However, Duvenage said removing the fees did not address the fundamental question. “The various fees and meter upgrade costs may have been taken off the table for now, but the bigger question remains: why should a household be compelled to register a safe, compliant solar system that sits behind its meter and does not feed electricity back into Eskom’s network?” he said.
“If Eskom believes compulsory registration is necessary, it should clearly explain the legal basis and what practical problem registration solves. Consumers deserve more than an instruction. They deserve a rational explanation.”
OUTA also questioned the argument that registration was needed for Eskom to determine how much embedded solar generation existed in South Africa, noting that the utility already produced such estimates despite only partial registration.
AfriForum challenges legal basis
AfriForum has also challenged the legal basis, pointing to section 2A(2)(c) of the Electricity Regulation Act 4 of 2006, which states that the Act does not apply to generation facilities with capacities of no more than 100 kW. AfriForum adviser Deidré Steffens said NERSA needed to explain the legal basis for prescribing registration requirements for precisely those installations.
NERSA published draft rules in July that would require municipalities and private electricity distributors to establish comprehensive registers of solar systems generating less than 100 kW. AfriForum warned that municipalities could use such registers to introduce additional fixed charges or solar-related levies as their revenue from electricity sales declines.
Eskom points to international practice
Eskom has countered the criticism by framing registration as standard international practice, saying it reviewed 20 markets including Australia, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Kenya and Brazil and found that notification, registration or approval of customer-owned generation is commonly required before grid connection.
“Registration is a standard feature of modern electricity systems as countries integrate increasing levels of customer-owned generation into their networks,” said Eskom Group Executive for Distribution Junaid Munshi. “The process enables customer-owned generation to be safely and efficiently integrated into a shared network that serves all customers, while laying the foundation for bidirectional smart metering, appropriate tariffs and credits, and future flexibility services.”
The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) backed the requirement in a statement on 31 March 2026, saying it supported worker safety, grid stability and regulatory compliance.
Exporting electricity a different matter
A key point of dispute has been whether registration applies to systems that do not export electricity to the grid. NERSA has stated that the requirement is based on an installation having a point of connection to the grid, not on whether electricity is exported. OUTA disagrees, advising that homeowners who do not export power may forgo registration provided their installation has a valid Certificate of Compliance.
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OUTA draws a clear distinction between households generating electricity for their own consumption and customers who wish to feed surplus power back into the grid. Duvenage said it was reasonable for Eskom to regulate the latter. “But once you start feeding electricity back into the grid, the equation changes,” he said. “There are legitimate technical, metering, tariff, and rebate considerations, and it is reasonable for Eskom to regulate that interaction with its network.”
Eskom and NERSA have both emphasised that a Certificate of Compliance and registration serve different purposes: the first confirms electrical safety, while the second gives the distributor information about the location, technology and capacity of connected generation facilities.
How to register
The waiver applies only to customers supplied directly by Eskom. Customers supplied by municipalities must comply with the requirements of their relevant licensed municipal distributor. Eligible customers can register through Eskom’s Small-Scale Embedded Generation registration platform.
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