A generator produces electricity in one part of South Africa, and a customer buys it in another. Somewhere in between, somebody has to work out what belongs on the bill.
NERSA’s draft Rules for Electricity Trading give a useful sense of what has to happen around that transaction. There is the commercial agreement under which the customer buys electricity from a generator or trader, and there is the network service required to move power across transmission and distribution infrastructure. Metering and settlement bring the two together so that the electricity supplied, consumed and transported can be allocated and charged correctly.
Buying electricity from an independent generator does not make the infrastructure carrying it free. Network costs still have to be recovered, with responsibilities shared between traders, customers, generators and network service providers.
The electricity itself does not travel through the network carrying the customer’s name. Wheeling is an accounting and commercial arrangement laid over the operation of an interconnected power system. Generation and consumption must be measured at the required intervals, energy allocated to the correct customer, and the relevant network charges applied. The records held by the parties then have to be reconciled.
Municipal networks can add another layer. Many large electricity users are connected to municipal distribution systems rather than directly to Eskom, giving municipalities technical and commercial responsibilities in transactions involving electricity bought from generators elsewhere. Their tariffs, metering capability, and billing systems determine whether wheeling works smoothly in practice.
Corporate PPAs are growing, more independent generators and traders are entering the market, and customers increasingly want to choose where they buy electricity. That puts greater demands on the systems sitting behind each transaction.
If wheeling is going to work at scale, it has to become an ordinary part of operating the electricity system, not a bespoke arrangement that has to be untangled every month.
NERSA’s work on electricity-trading rules is part of putting that machinery in place. Regulations, meter data and billing procedures may not attract the attention that a new solar plant does, but a competitive electricity market depends on transactions being measured, allocated and settled reliably.
The electrons do not arrive with the name of their buyer attached. Meters, data, and billing systems have to do that job for them.
References
- National Energy Regulator of South Africa. Draft NERSA Rules for Electricity Trading in South Africa. 2026.
- National Energy Regulator of South Africa. Consultation Paper on Regulatory Rules on Network Charges for Third-Party Transportation of Energy. 2024.
