The Parkhurst Village Residents’ and Business Owners’ Association will be part of an initiative to sell the excess power created through their solar panels back to the City of Johannesburg(COJ).
The suburb began making plans to go off the grid two years ago during the height of load shedding in Johannesburg. Initially, the plan intended to ensure that the whole of Parkhurst would be off the grid and require no power from the COJ.
Cheryl Labuschagne, the chairwoman for the Parkhurst Village Residents’ and Business Owners’ Association, said, “There has been a lot of interest, although now that the power grid is a bit more stable it seems to have taken a back seat.”
More recently an application process started that allows residents to remain connected to the city’s power grid and sell whatever excess power they have to the city.
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Labuschagne said her understanding is that the city is planning on becoming its own power producer.
Stephan Wessels, a Parkhurst resident who installed a system to power his home using solar power in September last year said the application process to sell your excess power back to the city is a lengthy one and not everyone from the City of Johannesburg knew the process.
Once the application process is approved someone from the City of Johannesburg will come to approve the system installed.
To have solar panels installed in your home is a costly endeavour but Labuschagne said, “There are two points I want to make, one is that the prices are coming down and secondly, people perhaps don’t think of the cost of it reasonably.” She added, “If you spend R100 000, for arguments sake, but you’re not paying for electricity anymore you have to take the money you spend on electricity out of your budget.
Wessels also said, “The most expensive part is the batteries to store the power so that’s why the system where you feed it back to the grid is much cheaper.”
Labuschagne said that it is likely that developments with the City of Johannesburg are likely to take place within the next couple of weeks.
