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Technical Energy Journalist - Freelance Johannesburg

CT mayoral committee greenlights electricity wheeling pilot

7 Jun 2023

The City of Cape Town's mayoral committee this week greenlit the authorisation for third parties to start selling electricity using the city's grid infrastructure.

Source: Gallo/Getty

"This is the business end of our pilot, following the development of the billing engine and the completion of wheeling agreements," said Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

Last year, the city invited applications to participate in the wheeling pilot with fifteen participants (representing 25 generators and 40 customers) now confirmed and about to start wheeling.

"The city is getting on top of the complexity of wheeling, which requires new skills, regulatory and policy changes, billing development and bilateral agreements. Our programme will allow electricity to be wheeled over both the municipal and Eskom distribution networks in Cape Town.

"Sales will be governed by bilateral power purchase agreements within a market environment, as opposed to a regulated environment, as the price of the energy is set between the parties and not by the city, Eskom or the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa)," said Beverley van Reenen, mayoral committee member for energy.

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Legislative framework in place

Cape Town also already has the enabling legislative framework in place for wheeling, with the city’s Electricity Supply By-law allowing for the retail wheeling of electricity through the network. Wheeling will take place on 11kV and higher voltages.

The 15 wheeling pilot participants who submitted valid applications to generate and sell power are: