The City of Cape Town is opening its electricity grid to private sales and trading, after a year of piloting the project.
Through wheeling, the City is able to buy electricity directly from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) or licenced energy traders, using existing municipal grid infrastructure.
Over 562, 800 Kilowatts per hour of power was generated and wheeled across the City’s grid between private sector energy traders during the pilot phase.
Cape Town’s wheeling pilot phase included three wheeling participants (traders), three generators and three off-takers: Enpower Trading, Etana Energy and Equites Fund Property.
Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of Cape Town, said “today we officially signal the full opening of Cape Town’s wheeling regime after a successful year-long pilot. In this next phase, the City will promote the scaling up of power trading across our electricity grid between qualifying private sellers, based on bilateral and multi-lateral trading agreements.”
He also said nore 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.
Picture: City of Cape Town