Before you hire
Before you sign with a Durban installer, make sure eThekwini approves the system before anything is connected. Here, doing the paperwork later can leave you dealing with fines, disconnection, or an expensive redo of the process.
Independent guidance built from public information. Not an official City body or certification authority.
Durban pre-hire warning block
In Durban, grid-tied solar must be approved first. If your installer connects the system before eThekwini gives written approval, the municipality can order it disconnected, fine the customer, and even cut power to the property.
A CoC is mandatory in Durban, but it does not make a grid-tied system municipally compliant by itself. The city still expects the municipal approval path and commissioning sign-off by an ECSA-registered professional.
One Durban-specific trap is prepaid meter migration. If you still have prepaid units loaded when eThekwini changes you onto an SSEG-compatible meter or tariff, those units may be forfeited.
Before you install anything, will you submit my eThekwini application in the legal account holder's name, wait for written approval, and include the ECSA commissioning sign-off before connection?
Walk away if the installer says they can connect first and regularise later, tells you a CoC is enough on its own, or cannot explain who the legal applicant is when the electricity account sits with a landlord, body corporate, or reseller.
Installer comparison layer
The listing is the entry point, not the whole product. Use it alongside the warning cards and pre-hire questions above so you can compare installers with the City rule in mind.
The list is limited to local records held in the static dataset. If fewer than three verified records are available, the page intentionally shows fewer cards.
You can still use this page to pressure-test a quote and spot admin risk before you sign. Verified installer records can be added later without changing the municipal guidance.
Local homeowner FAQs
These are the city-specific issues that tend to change the job, the quote, or the admin risk after a homeowner has already started talking to installers.
Because Durban's embedded-generation process is tied to the legal electricity customer, not just the person paying the installer. The online application workflow asks for applicant, property and supply details, while the city's general terms focus on the customer and the premises where generation is connected. If you are in a rental, sectional-title scheme or family-owned home, settle the named applicant question before any paperwork starts.
Yes. Durban's application system issues a reference number and the city also provides a status-check page, which is far better than relying on vague 'the municipality is busy' updates from an installer. Ask for the application reference on the same day the submission is made.
Approval is not the end of the story. eThekwini's process pages explain that an approved embedded-generation customer moves onto a bi-directional meter and a net-billing tariff structure, and the city also publishes guidance on how to read those meters. That means your billing behaviour, not just your roof hardware, changes after approval.
Internal links
Cape Town is the lead consumer-protection page. Other city routes stay visible only when the supporting municipal research is ready.