LETTER: Are Cape Town residents who install solar panels too rich to be appreciated?

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’s announcement that the city was testing a cheaper two-way meter to facilitate the purchase of surplus domestic photovoltaic (PV) electricity is to be welcomed, as it appears to be half the price of the previous offering.

However, with 1,000 homes moving to PV systems each month in the Cape Town area, according to him, a net surplus of 16MW being fed into the city grid during a sunny day shows he still hasn’t got the message from his PV early adapters. Investing in PV systems is an expensive grudge purchase made because the city is no longer a reliable supplier of electricity. If Hill-Lewis wants the surplus, the city must pay for residential two way meters to be installed.

That the city has agreed to pay for the installation of wi-fi systems to switch off the geysers of “energy heroes” over evening peak periods only makes the situation worse. Are residents who can install PV panels considered too affluent to get the same treatment? If Hill-Lewis wants to cover one stage of load-shedding by receiving a 60MW surplus from residents, installing two-way meters at no cost would be a huge step forward.

James Cunningham
Camps Bay

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