By Lance Dickerson, MD of REVOV
South Africans who kept the lights on during the darkest years of load shedding are now being asked to pay three times.
First, they paid out of pocket for solar installations and backup batteries when the grid failed.
Second, they have been asked to register their solar systems, with accompanying costs.
Now, many are being asked to subsidise mega-industrial users while facing new charges on the very systems that reduced pressure on Eskom’s grid.
Here are five hard truths South Africa needs to confront.
- Households carried the country through the crisis.
When Eskom’s failures plunged South Africa into prolonged darkness, households and businesses stepped in.
They invested billions into rooftop solar, inverters, and storage systems.
By the end of 2025, rooftop solar installations had surged to an estimated 7,500MW, up from roughly 1,300MW the year before.
This was not just private resilience, it materially reduced demand on the national grid.
- Solar users helped end load shedding pressure.
The reduction in daytime demand was largely driven by solar adoption.
Peak demand that once sat between 33,000MW and 37,000MW was significantly reduced as behind-the-meter solar systems absorbed roughly 7,500MW.
That excess capacity helped create the space for hundreds of days without load shedding.
Consumers helped buy Eskom time.
- Consumers are now subsidising cheap industrial tariffs.
While households face tariffs north of 220c/kWh, industrial users such as smelters have reportedly secured electricity at 62c/kWh.
Saving jobs matters. But so does fairness.
For many consumers, it feels as though the people who kept the system afloat are now being penalised to support large-scale industrial relief.
- New solar charges send the wrong signal.
At precisely the moment South Africa should be accelerating renewable adoption, new charges aimed at solar users risk doing the opposite.
The unbundled “generation capacity charge” and grid access costs create the perception that consumers are being punished for investing in resilience.
This risks undermining confidence in the country’s broader energy transition.
- South Africa needs a fairer transition framework.
The real issue is not whether cost recovery is necessary. It is whether the burden is being shared fairly.
South Africa needs a tariff framework that:
- protects vulnerable households,
- supports industrial jobs,
- incentivises renewable investment,
- ensures sustainable grid recovery.
Anything less risks turning an energy transition into an inequality crisis.
The people who stepped up when the system failed should not now be the ones punished for it.
