MyBroadband: Eskom registers only 184 homes for rooftop solar
Fewer than 200 residential households across South Africa have registered their rooftop solar installations with Eskom and migrated to the utility’s mandatory tariff, according to figures revealed at an industry webinar. MyBroadband reported that only 184 homes have made the switch to the Homeflex tariff since Eskom migrated its first Homepower customer in June 2024.
Eskom Enforces Homeflex Tariffs for Small-Scale Generators
Eskom launched the Homeflex tariff in 2024 as a compulsory time-of-use structure for anyone registering a small-scale embedded generation system.
Approximately 59,000 residential customers rely on that single-phase connection without the complexities of time-of-use variable pricing. While municipal authorities often keep time-of-use tariffs optional for small-scale generators, Eskom enforces registration as a strict prerequisite.
The gap between registered systems and total rooftop photovoltaic adoption grows wider when examining broader market metrics. EE Business Intelligence managing director Chris Yelland noted that the 184-household figure exposes the failure of Eskom’s initial compliance strategy. Eskom previously stated it had registered 1,485 small-scale embedded generation systems by November 2025, but that broader tally included commercial and business users.
Concessions and Surviving Safety Disputes
Industry analysts estimate that between 40,000 and 80,000 unregistered residential rooftop solar systems operate across Eskom direct and municipal distribution grids. Eskom has extended its registration deadline to 30 September 2026, backing down from earlier, tighter cutoffs. The utility also dropped demands for costly sign-offs from engineers registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa, choosing instead to accept standard electrical certificates of compliance.
Eskom withdrew threats of fines and disconnections for households failing to register. Those climb-downs followed sustained pressure from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse.
Despite those policy reversals, disputes persist over grid control. Eskom maintains that it retains the legal right to cut electricity supply to any solar or battery installation it deems unsafe. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse argues that a generalized safety assertion provides no lawful basis to disconnect a property holding a valid certificate of compliance unless the utility proves the document itself was unlawfully issued.
Grid Stability and Behind-the-Meter Capacity
Eskom does not require a complete residential database to monitor stability on national transmission lines. According to weekly system status reports presented to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, behind-the-meter rooftop solar capacity reached 9,430 megawatts-peak by September 2026. That total sits just 170 megawatts shy of the combined peak capacity generated by Medupi and Kusile, the utility’s two largest coal-fired power stations.