CLIENT COMPENSATION CLAIMS
Make sure your solar installation has municipal approval to avoid getting burnt by insurers
As thousands of South Africans switch to alternative power supply systems, municipalities have warned of the potential fire risks. And insurers are unlikely to pay out claims if your installation was not approved by your municipality.
The Cape Town municipality’s Fire and Rescue Service says the increased use of items such as solar installations, generators and inverters powered by rechargeable batteries has caused the department to revisit its incident management playbook.
“While these devices are fulfilling a crucial role in keeping users’ lights on, and keeping their businesses going during load shedding, users are also reminded that they can pose a risk if not installed, stored or utilised properly. In fact, systems that are not installed properly, safely and legally are one of the largest contributors to extended power outages,” says the City of Cape Town.
To minimise the potential damage, municipalities require all solar PV and/or battery systems to be installed by a competent installer who must provide a Certificate of Compliance. All systems that are connected to the wiring of the building must be registered with the City of Cape Town before installation and, from October, only city-approved inverters will be accepted for these systems. This is to reduce the risk of electrocution of those working on electrical grids and also to speed up the solar system authorisation turnaround time.
Speaking at a Daily Maverick webinar recently, Christelle Colman, the co-founder of Ami Underwriting Managers, said more fire-related claims are coming through now as solar installations increase.
“The last thing you need in that scenario is to have your house burn down and realise that it was the result of a faulty solar installation,” Colman warned.
Ernest North, the chief executive of Naked Insurance, says if you are being a reasonably responsible person by making sure your generator is serviced or your electrical wires are installed by a professional, then you have little to worry about.
“However, if you are using a guy down the road to install your solar panels and inverter or you are overloading a plug point, and your house burns down as a result, your claim is likely to be rejected,” North said.
The City of Cape Town reports that recent incidents the Fire and Rescue Service has dealt with include:
- Four people overcome by fumes from a generator in Parow, with one death.
- A gas explosion at a home in Hout Bay that was caused by the gas source not being switched off and resulted in one person sustaining burn wounds.
- A fire on a truck transporting lithium-ion batteries. Firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the trailer, avoiding a major hazard.
- The batteries on an inverter in a store within a mall ignited, resulting in the mall having to close its doors while the incident was attended to.
- Solar panels on a factory roof caused the wires to arch, resulting in a fire. Firefighters had to wait for technicians to isolate the panels before they could extinguish the fire.
- A firefighter was called to extinguish a fire at a neighbouring property after a battery bank overheated because of insufficient ventilation.
The Mayoral Committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, says while the city appreciates that residents want to protect themselves from the impacts of load shedding, the incidents highlight the need to be cautious and vigilant about how energy solutions are used and stored.
“Ventilation is a key consideration, because of the risk of noxious gases from the use of petrol or diesel, but there is also the very real risk of devices overheating and catching fire. In the event of a fire, these new-age batteries also require very specific firefighting methods, so households and businesses need to ensure that they have the correct fire extinguishers on hand for their specific needs,” he says.
Electrical equipment not switched off before the power comes back on after load shedding, and incorrectly installed or unapproved solar PV and/or battery systems increase the risk of circuits tripping and fire hazards.
What you can do to ensure your rooftop solar PV installation is safe
- Ask if the solar PV service provider has substantial experience, with references.
- Ask whether the solar PV service provider designed, supplied and installed the system or only carried out one or two of these steps.
- The PV service provider should be accredited with a third-party quality assurance programme such as a PV Green Card-endorsed programme with the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (Sapvia) or the P4 Platform quality assurance programme.
- The installer must apply to the city to authorise the system for grid connection to ensure the safety of the electrical network, your home and all who work on the electrical grids.
- If city staff and contractors do not know about systems connected to the grid, they run the risk of electrocution.
- Authorisation must be obtained in writing from the city before installation.
- Get a structural engineering assessment — make sure your roof can withstand the weight and wind load of solar PV panels where necessary.
- You will need building plans approved if the panels protrude more than600mm above the highest point of the roof, or are raised more than 1.5m above any point on the roof, or if ground-mounted, the panels in their installed position project more than 2.1m above the natural/finished ground level. DM
Councils want to know who they can tax in the future and so have “inserted” themselves in the middle of this process. Where have they suddenly got the expertise to approve your installation or not? What a joke – deal directly with your insurer and let the council have nothing to do with it.
Interesting that the insurance companies have not gone out to their respective customers to inform them of this. any solar PV system has to be approved by a qualified engineer and the installer must be approved to issue a COC. Municipalities are not qualified to approve such an installation, but they should have a record of the engineers approval. suggest provide the municipality with a certified copy and retain the original as most municipalities lose originals!
Thank you Rory. You make very good points. As this reads, only Cape Town is included.
Chris: until recently CPT chose to misinterpret NRS to suit their pocket. Their size rule was solar DC installed whereas NRS is very very clear that size limits are AC export facing the grid. They decided which inverters and ignored UL-approved, because I don’t know, maybe they know better than UL – possible but extremely unlikely. CPT also insisted on a specific bidirectional meter that costs 200% more than in single phase than a three phase bidirectional meter which ticks the boxes in the rest of the world and ticks the boxes at other SA councils.
So in addition to having to provide our own electricity because government is too incompetent and quite honestly, given the money municipalities have been making by in selling the electricity over the years, they should have some accountability for our dire situation, now we have to get structural and electrical engineers to check out our system. Why doesn’t COCT aren’t their own people to help us out. I was quoted over R5k to have mine checked. This is in addition to the R150k for the installation. This is ridiculous and insurers are playing games – “we won’t pay if this and that” which is their standard approach.
Just as a matter of interest, if your TV antenna/satellite dish is not installed according to the very strict SABS/SANS code of practice (03A of 1976/0313 of 1999/061-2 subclause 4.1 of 1994/ subclause 5.3 of 1994/etc) then your CoC is also not worth the paper it written on. For many years I was very much involved trying to convince SABS that the abovementioned practices were impossible to implement, but with no success. I retired 13 years ago and turned my back in those issues, maybe SANS did attend to those practices since my retirement but I I will not bet a penny on it. As far as I am concerned, there is still not a single household in this country that qualify for a CoC.
Interesting comment. Which of the ~7 SABS Standards about terrestrial TV antennas are you referring to, Co?
Perhaps SANS 10061-1? “The installation of communal and single antenna systems for the reception of television and sound broadcast transmissions Part 1: VHF and UHF
television and VHF sound antenna systems”?
I don’t own a copy of Part 1, but Part 2, which deals with satellite antennas, seems quite simple. The 2008 version supersedes SABS 061-2:1994 (edition 1). Part 2 is quite short (13 pages) and has many references to Part 1. However, I don’t see any “very strict” requirements.
4.1 Suitability of site
5.3 Mounting
5.3.1 Mechanical stress
5.3.2 Protection of joints
Nothing very strict there, unless your antenna is more than 1.5 m across, or has hinged joints, in which case you need a safety chain or an earthing strap.
You don’t “persuade” the SABS. You join the relevant Technical Committee, Sub-Committee or Working Group and make your expertise available to revise the appropriate Standard. Specifically, this standard falls under National Committee SABS/TC 074/SC 03,
Communication Technology – Broadcasting. If you know what you are talking about, you will be heard. If you need help with this, give me a shout. I am a member of both SABS/TC 074 and SABS/TC 074/SC 03. It doesn’t matter if you have retired or not.
HTH.
My mind immediately smells an ulterior motive in that municipalities want to be able to see who is using alternative power thus negatively impacting municipal income.
I hear the safety comments, but surely any risk of fire and resultant consequences are in the insurers domain? Of course i’m assuming all property owners have relevant insurance.
Any property owner who installs any electrical equipment already has to have this done by qualified entities by law anyway.
Perhaps i’ve just become cynical as regards all current government interventions.
Our insurers have only asked for a COC from a properly registered electrician.
I cannot imagine trying to get the correct certification from a dysfunctional municipality
If my insurer wants my municipality to approve, my insurer knows where to go. There where any fire will be much hotter than anywhere else. A reasonable expectation is a CoC. Otherwise I will find another insurer. Insurers (not all of them) are also trying their luck. Solar installations are probably one of the safer type of installations one gets.
The PV Green Card has no standing as it is not issued by any competent authority. Accredited installers (electricians) are registered with the Dept. of Labour. It is just another trick to confuse the public.
Per CPT : “ In fact, systems that are not installed properly, safely and legally are one of the largest contributors to extended power outages”
That is a dumb statement to make. If my hut burns down because of solar panels and batteries badly installed it is tripped out of system and does not cause a 100 billionth of the blackouts caused by loadshredding.
This from my solar installer in Cape Town:
Required Information- Scanned copies:
1. Copy of your ID Document.
2. If the House is registered in your partners name also, I will require a copy of their ID too.
3. Copy of your municipal Rates account, the entire account not just the front page.
4. If you are an Eskom client we do not require any paperwork as Eskom clients only require a COC for registration. Please inform us here on this email if you are an Eskom client.
Point 4 is interesting. Eskom clients, no paperwork needed apart from COC. So – if compliance is the issue, the COC deals with it, which makes the provision of extra information just because of a council connection deeply suspicious.
Can you please keep it factual? “Municipalities” do not require this rubbish. ONLY ONE municipality does, and that’s the City of Cape Town. There so no such registration requirement anywhere else.
The National Building Regulations also require a “Competent Person” to take responsibility for the design and installation of a roof structure. When a roof loading is substantively changed by the addition of solar panels that the roof was not originally designed to carry, then such change must be certified as safe by a “Competent Person” – failure to do so is also likely to result in a repudiated insurance claim should the roof structure fail later – which is possible and has occurred.
There is no legislation that requires installations to be approved by a municipality unless your system feeds back into their grid. A Certificate of Compliance signed by a registered electrician is all that legislation currently requires.