Electricity wheeling in Cape Town: 861,162 kWh traded
By Staff Writer
THE City of Cape Town’s electricity wheeling initiative, launched in March 2025, has facilitated the trade of 861,162 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy across its grid as of September 2025, according to city data.
The programme, which allows private generators to transport electricity through the city’s grid to commercial buyers, began with three pilot off-takers and now has two active participants, with additional users recently signed up.
The wheeling programme is aimed at not only making the city less dependent on the state-owned power utility Eskom but also to provide local businesses with access to electricity at lower tariffs.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said at the launch that the wheeling pilot the city had run had prepared it well for a democratised energy market.
“This is an exciting leap forward to diversify our electricity supplier base beyond Eskom to a future of decentralised electricity trading in South Africa. More than half a million kilowatt hours have already been wheeled across Cape Town’s grid during the pilot phase between three energy companies generating power from a number of sources.”
Though bringing in Independent Power Producers (IPPs) was intended to undercut Eskom, their impact on pricing is unknown, as the city said it has no insight into the financial details of the private power purchase agreements.
“The city does not have any visibility into the Power Purchase agreements these off-takers have signed with private generators/traders and, therefore, are not in a position to answer this question,” said Alderman Xanthea Limberg, the city’s mayoral committee member for energy.
Even so, the initial data has shown that the energy market was evolving at a rapid pace, as the city reported significant market interest, particularly from energy traders and Large Power Users.
It also noted that many private generators were still under construction and were expected to come online in the first quarter of 2026, with a pipeline of further wheeling arrangements anticipated for the year.
To manage this, the city emphasised the importance of having a wheeling framework, a capable metering and billing engine, formal agreements, skilled resources, and political buy-in.
Regarding network capacity, the city stated that wheeling does not currently require it to scale up infrastructure for energy buyers.
“With wheeling, specifically from an off-taker perspective, the utility is not required to scale up the capacity of the network as we are just replacing utility-supplied energy with private energy,” Limberg explained.
Major grid upgrades would only be triggered when new generators were connected, with the cost for those upgrades borne by the developers.
The initiative is already having a tangible impact on renewable energy investment. “The impact has been quite significant, showcasing Cape Town’s expanding green energy service offerings,” the city said, adding that these developments are “a catalyst for economic development and job creation,” Limberg said.
A growing number of new green generation projects have been launched to meet demand from large businesses seeking renewable power.
“We are excited about the prospect of expanding our wheeling capacity beyond the pilot to serve multiple off-takers and look forward to the moderation of wheeling tariffs to encourage greater participation in this transformative initiative,” Hill-Lewis said at the launch.
Electricity Wheeling in Cape Town
ELECTRICITY wheeling lets private generators sell power to customers using the City’s grid — creating a mini-market for renewable energy. After a successful pilot, Cape Town officially opened its grid to wheeling in 2025.
Growthpoint and Etana Energy made history by wheeling solar power from Constantia Village to an office in the CBD. The pilot saw over 560,000 kWh of renewable energy transferred.
Wheeling is currently limited to medium- and high-voltage users on Time-of-Use tariffs. Participants sign “Use of System” agreements and pay network fees to the City.
The initiative supports Cape Town’s goal to secure 350 MW from independent power producers, cutting reliance on Eskom and reducing load-shedding risks.
Major companies like Shoprite are already taking part, using solar power from nearby sites via licensed energy traders such as Enpower Trading.
