Montmasson-Clair explained to News24 that these imports could largely be attributed to households and businesses trying to beat load shedding by investing in small-scale embedded generation solutions like rooftop solar.Outlier, which has been tracking load shedding
Other factors contributing to the spike in imports could be linked to electricity price increases. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa had allowed Eskom an 18.65% tariff increase that kicked in on 1 April this year. Large-scale project developers like Scatec, which is building a hybrid solar PP and storage project in Kenhardt in the Northern Cape as part of government's emergency procurement round, have also been adding to the demand for imports. Some businesses which which took advantage of the lifting of the licence threshold of generationThe licence threshold was lifted altogether last year to help accelerate the process to get more power to the grid.
Currently, there are only three solar PV manufacturing and assembly plants. They are ARTSolar in KwaZulu-Natal and Seraphim in the Eastern Cape, while the third is Ener-G-Africa in the Western Cape, which has a different target market, supplying small solar panels.