- Cape Town businesses and households have broken through the R50m earnings mark since the start of the City’s Cash for Power programme in 2022/23.
- Cape Town is the first metro to buy excess solar PV power from small-scale generators, with over 1 800 small scale power sellers now participating.
Under the Cash for Power programme, the City first credits a power seller’s total municipal bill automatically down to zero, generating a cash saving. Since 23/24, both businesses and households also now have the option to apply to earn cash once their municipal bill reaches a zero balance. Investment in small-scale generation has boomed in Cape Town as residents moved to mitigate load-shedding and take advantage of City incentives, including reduced red tape and costs to install solar. As it stands, the City can purchase power in exchange for cash from a total of 176MVA of cumulative installed SSEG capacity in Cape Town.
‘We are delighted to reach the R50m mark in Cash for Power earnings for Capetonians. In fact we are on track to double earnings in 24/25 compared to the first year of our programme. This shows the extent to which households and businesses have invested in solar, and we are glad to see so many people selling back to the City in exchange for cash savings on their municipal bills and actual cash payouts. We will buy as much excess power from Capetonians as they are able to sell us. The return of Eskom’s load-shedding shows that we must keep moving at pace towards a more energy secure Cape Town that is less reliant on Eskom. Cape Town has SA’s most advanced plans to buy power on the open market. Over three years we are further investing over R4 bn in electricity grid upgrades to enable this dynamic, decentralised energy future,’ said Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
As of 1 February 2025, there are currently 1 842 sellers benefitting from Cape Town’s Cash for Power scheme as part of the City’s broader plans to end load-shedding over time. Of these sellers, 1 090 are residential and 752 are commercial/industrial.
For 24/25, the residential feed-in tariff is 92,13 cents and 82,06 cents for non-residential, with both categories benefitting from the 25c per unit incentive (all figures excl VAT).
For more information, visit: https://www.capetown.gov.za/cashforpower
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
