Putting solar on your home in 2026? This is what to know.

Updated 24 September 2026

When you put solar on your home, with or without a battery, you follow the rules of EAC's Distribution System Operator (DSO). They set how many kW you can install, what the battery may do and what happens during cut-offs. The rules are in the Connection Guide of May 2026 and the technical guides for RES and storage systems.^{1, 2, 3}

This article is about homes. Different rules apply to businesses, and we explain them in a separate article.

How much solar you're allowed

The DSO sets the limit in kW, and it depends on the main fuse of your supply. With a battery the limit goes up, as long as the battery holds at least as many kWh as the solar has kW. For example, 8 kW of solar needs a battery of at least 8 kWh. kW shows how much power the panels put out, and kWh how much energy the battery holds.¹

To give you an idea, with 450 W panels 4.16 kW is about 9 panels and 10.4 kW about 23.

A three-phase home with a 3×20 A fuse can fit up to 6 kW of solar without a battery. With a battery of 10.4 kWh or more, it can go up to 10.4 kW. Above 4.16 kW you generally need a three-phase inverter. For a single-phase home going up to 5.2 kW with a battery, the guide allows a hybrid inverter of up to 5.5 kVA. If you install more than the DSO approved, the system is illegal and the DSO can disconnect it.

The three ways to connect

Your system will be connected in one of the three ways below, and that decides whether the solar and the battery keep working when the DSO orders a cut-off.

Standard connection. Every new system gets this, unless you apply for another way and the DSO approves it, or your area is congested, meaning the grid there has no room left for more solar power. Most days the panels cover the house and charge the battery, and the surplus goes to the grid. When the DSO orders a cut-off, both the solar and the battery disconnect, because in the DSO's standard diagrams the cut-off switch sits between the inverter and the house. The house buys all its electricity from EAC until the cut-off ends.³

Occasional zero export. You ask the DSO for it in writing. On normal days nothing changes. When the DSO has to limit solar output, though, it sends a different command through a second receiver, and the system simply stops exporting. The panels keep covering the house and charging the battery, and their output drops only for energy that has nowhere to go, for example once the battery is full. The DSO sends this command before it switches standard systems off altogether. The owner pays for the export controller and the second receiver.^{2, 4}

Permanent zero export. The system never exports. The panels cover the house and charge the battery. Their output drops only when neither the house nor the battery can take any more energy. You can choose it if you want a bigger system without a battery, because with permanent zero export the DSO allows the same higher limits that apply with a battery. You need an application, special connection terms and an export controller permanently set to zero. It's a one-way choice, since you can't later switch back to a standard connection or to occasional zero export. The DSO can still cut back or switch off output when the grid needs it.^{1, 2}

If you want to put in solar but your area is congested, you can only do it with permanent zero export. The limits in the “With a battery” column of the table above then apply. The DSO shows congested areas indicatively on its RES hosting-capacity map, and the final answer for your home comes with the connection terms you get when you apply.^{1, 5}

The law gives every renewable self-consumer that can technically run at zero export the right not to have the solar power it produces and uses at home curtailed when exports have to be cut. The grid operators may still switch the system off in an emergency with no alternative, and must then tell CERA immediately.⁶ In practice, the DSO applies this right through occasional zero export, which you apply for.

In a standard setup, a battery only helps during cut-offs if you have occasional zero export. How often the grid switches solar off →

What the battery may do

Under the DSO's current rules, a home battery normally doesn't exchange energy with the grid. It doesn't charge from it and doesn't send energy to it. The one exception is an emergency, when the grid operators can have it charge from the grid.^{1, 3} Otherwise, it charges only from your own solar and powers only your own home. Once the battery is full, whatever the solar has left over goes to the grid.

The battery keeps midday solar for the evening. Under today's net billing, though, in a normal area it hardly changes your savings. What a unit of electricity costs →

The DSO itself recommends setting the charge rate so the battery isn't full before the solar reaches its peak output, around midday. That way the battery still has room in the sunniest hours. This matters most when the system can't export, which means always with permanent zero export and, with occasional zero export, whenever the DSO stops exports.³

As for the energy you export, new systems can no longer join net metering. What you get for exports depends on your contract with your supplier, and EAC Supply offers a net billing contract.^{7, 8} How net billing works →

Cut-offs and power cuts

Every solar system, however small, gets a DSO remote-control receiver, fitted in the meter box. The receiver picks up the cut-off signal, either through the power cables themselves (ripple control) or over a mobile network (NB-IoT). On the DSO's command it opens a switch and the system disconnects. The solar and the battery share one receiver.³ The grid operators, the DSO and the Transmission System Operator Cyprus (TSOC), can cut output at any time for grid safety, and current rules provide no compensation.²

A power cut is a different case, when the grid itself goes down. A battery can then keep all or part of the house running as back-up, if the system is built for it and meets the DSO's conditions for backup operation. It needs an inverter that can power the house on its own, an automatic switch that disconnects both the phases and the neutral from the grid, an automatic neutral-to-earth link while the house runs on the battery, and the right protection and warning labels.³ Not every hybrid inverter does this, and the electrical engineer has to design the wiring. Ask before you buy.

Before you install

To add a battery or panels later, you first need approval from the DSO. Without it the change is illegal, and the DSO can disconnect the system. You make a new application, which is judged on the grid as it is then. If your area has become congested by then, extra panels are only allowed with permanent zero export.¹ If you're thinking about a battery, it's simpler to fit it from the start.

Before the DSO inspects and connects the system, you need a supply contract. From the day the application is approved you have 60 working days to install and connect, or six months for a new home getting power for the first time along with the solar, or a system over 10.4 kW.¹

What to ask your installer

The DSO requires the inverter to be certified to EN 50549-1 (or an equivalent standard), the European standard for generating systems connected to the low-voltage grid, and to be set to the values it specifies for Cyprus.^{2, 3} The maker's brochure isn't proof, so ask for the certificate.

1. Is the inverter certified to EN 50549-1 for this particular model? Ask for the independent lab certificate that names the model.
2. Will you load the DSO's settings into the inverter and give me a copy of the settings sheet?
3. Does the battery hold at least as many kWh as the solar has kW, so the higher limit applies?
4. Will you apply for occasional zero export for me, and are the second receiver and the export controller in the quote?
5. Will the system work as back-up in a power cut, and will the DSO approve it?
6. Will you set the charge rate so the battery isn't full before the solar reaches its peak output?

See your own numbers

Our calculator shows how much you'd save with solar and a battery, based on your roof and your usage. It takes less than a minute and uses today's EAC electricity tariffs.

See my savings

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References

1. EAC's DSO, Connection guide for active customers and self-consumers, 15 May 2026. EAC (PDF, in Greek)
2. EAC's DSO, Technical guide for RES systems up to 15 MWp, edition 2026.1, 15 May 2026. EAC (PDF, in Greek)
3. EAC's DSO, Technical guide for connecting storage systems, edition 2026.3, 15 July 2026. EAC (PDF, in Greek)
4. EAC's DSO, notice on occasional zero-export operation. EAC (PDF, in Greek)
5. EAC's DSO, RES hosting-capacity map. EAC
6. RES Promotion Law 107(I)/2022, Article 38(2)(δ), as amended by Law 55(I)/2025. CyLaw (PDF, in Greek)
7. CERA, announcement on payment for self-consumers' exports from 1 October 2025. CERA (in Greek)
8. EAC Supply, net billing contract (version 6, August 2026). EAC (in Greek)

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This article is provided for information only and is not financial advice. The limits and rules come from the DSO's published guides and may change. Switch is not responsible for decisions made in reliance on it.