Frequently asked questions.

Wheeling means using the existing electricity grid to carry energy from a generator at one site to a consumer at another. The generator feeds energy into the network, the network operator (Eskom or your municipality) carries it, and the energy is credited against the buyer’s electricity account. No new cables are laid and nothing physical changes at your premises. It is an established, regulated practice in South Africa.

With physical wheeling, the energy is registered with your network operator as delivered to your connection and is netted off your electricity account. It needs a wheeling (use-of-system) agreement with Eskom or the municipality, and in some areas a medium-voltage connection.

With virtual wheeling, your connection and your electricity account stay exactly as they are. You keep paying your normal bill in full and receive a rebate for the renewable energy wheeled on your behalf. Because nothing changes on your connection, virtual wheeling has no voltage or capacity threshold, which makes it the usual route for low-voltage sites and for portfolios spread across different networks and legal entities.

Most businesses with a meaningful electricity bill can benefit from one route or the other. Whether physical wheeling is possible depends on three things: who supplies your electricity (Eskom or a municipality), the voltage and size of your connection, and your municipality’s wheeling rules. Where physical wheeling is not available, virtual wheeling is often an alternative.

Send us a recent electricity bill and we will tell you which route fits, at no cost.

Rules differ from one municipality to the next, and they change. Some permit physical wheeling only at medium voltage and above, some have published wheeling tariffs, and some have none yet.

We keep and maintain a database of which municipalities allow wheeling and on what terms. Where the answer is unclear, we open the conversation with the municipality ourselves. Submit your property and we will start that investigation for you.

Not on your own, in most cases. Physical wheeling is arranged on the property’s electricity account, which is normally held by the landlord, with tenants recharged through sub-meters.

There are two ways forward: take supply through virtual wheeling, or introduce us to your landlord so that we can look at the building as a whole. Landlords are often keen, because lower energy costs help to keep tenants.

Our standard arrangement runs on rolling monthly terms, with no minimum purchase and no long-term lock-in. If you want price certainty for longer, fixed-term agreements are available too, and you can mix the two across your sites.

Nothing changes for you. Any energy that is not delivered in a given period simply stays on your normal supply from Eskom or the municipality, at exactly what you pay today. On our standard terms you pay only for renewable energy actually delivered, so there is no shortfall penalty.

Both, in stages. From the moment you sign our Heads of Terms, we look for solar plants on your network that have surplus output today and, where the match is viable, arrange for it to be wheeled to you. That covers part of your bill, mainly in daylight hours. These interim generators are independent businesses, so each match is found and agreed case by case.

EnergyField, the 2 GW wind, solar and battery cluster we are the route to market for, is expected to begin delivering from 2029 and is designed to cover far more of the day, including the evening peak.

No. Our Heads of Terms is non-binding. Signing it reserves your place in our allocation queue and instructs us to carry out the detailed appraisal and lodge the applications with your network operator, at our cost.

It does not oblige you to buy anything, and either side can withdraw at any time, in writing. Any binding agreement comes back to you separately, for a decision then.

Nothing up front. The appraisal, and the work to prepare and lodge applications, is carried out at our cost. If your site needs anything specific before supply can start, such as a metering upgrade, we explain it in your proposal before you commit to anything.

In most cases, no. There is no plant to install and no capital outlay, and nobody touches your wiring or your existing solar system. Physical wheeling may need a meter that records consumption half-hourly; where that is required, we arrange it with the network operator.

No. Wheeled energy travels over the same grid as the rest of your supply, so if your area is load-shed, your supply is interrupted as usual. Protection from outages needs storage or generation on your own site, which we can help you look at.

Yes. Rooftop solar and wheeled supply are not alternatives. Your own solar keeps supplying the building first, and wheeled energy covers part of what you still buy from the grid. If your system produces more than you use, you may also be able to sell that surplus through the platform.

Yes. We work with portfolios that span Eskom and municipal supply areas and sit in different legal entities. Each property is listed in the schedule to your Heads of Terms, and further properties can be added as they are appraised, without signing again.

To start, twelve months of electricity bills for each property (scans are fine), and whether each is supplied by Eskom or a municipality. Half-hourly meter data sharpens the appraisal considerably: large municipal accounts can often export it from the municipality’s smart-metering portal, and Eskom can release it on request. For sites with solar, hourly generation and export data from your inverter portal helps too.

If gathering this is a burden, send us your account numbers and a short letter of authority, and we will request the data directly on your behalf.

We usually come back within a week or so of receiving your bills. Getting energy flowing takes longer, because it depends on the network operator processing the applications. We keep you updated at each step.

Where use-of-system (wheeling) charges apply, they are set by Eskom or your municipality in their published tariffs and are reviewed each year. We take no margin on them, and your proposal shows them as a separate line so you can see exactly where the saving comes from.

A conventional power purchase agreement usually commits you to a long term on a take-or-pay basis, often with heavy legal and credit requirements. Our standard product is take-and-pay: you pay for energy delivered, month by month. Whether it works out cheaper for you depends on your load and your tariff, which is exactly what our appraisal shows.

Yes. That is what the platform is for. If your rooftop or ground-mount solar produces more than your building uses, we match that surplus with businesses on the network that want to buy renewable energy, and handle the agreements, metering, billing and settlement. You keep ownership and control of your plant.

Yes, and it is a common reason to come to us. If you own a building with a large roof and low consumption, its surplus can be wheeled, physically or virtually, to your other properties. We sit between the generating and consuming buildings, arrange the metering and settlement, and handle the applications with each network operator, while you keep the asset and the benefit.

Your system must be registered with, and approved by, your network operator to export to the grid, usually through the small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) process with your municipality or Eskom. We also need your system size and inverter rating and, ideally, hourly generation and export data from your inverter portal. If your approval needs amending to allow export, we can help with the application.

Not necessarily. Some municipalities credit exported energy at attractive rates, and where that beats what the platform can offer, you should keep it, and we will say so. Elsewhere, and particularly on many Eskom-supplied sites, exported surplus earns little or nothing. That is where selling through the platform adds the most value.

Every month. Generation is metered, matched to buyers and reconciled, and you receive a clear monthly statement alongside payment for the energy sold.

Yes, through Impower, part of the DimSum Energy group. Impower can visit your site, specify a system and provide a proposal. Contact us and we will arrange it.

No. A battery is not needed to take part. For customers who want their evening peak covered, battery-backed supply is planned as an option through EnergyField once it comes online.

Often you are not. Many businesses are billed on the wrong municipal tariff scale, and have been for years. Our Tariff Review checks your account against the municipality’s published tariff book, manages the change with the municipality, and is paid only out of the saving verified on your bill.

No. They are separate, and they work best together. A Tariff Review lowers the cost of the electricity you already buy by putting your account on the right scale. Wheeling replaces part of that electricity with renewable energy. A correctly classified account is the right starting point for both.

Earth & Wire is a smart virtual utility: a platform that connects renewable generators with businesses that want to buy clean energy over the existing grid. We own no power stations and no wires. We handle the matching, metering, billing and settlement.

Earth & Wire is a division of DimSum Energy (Pty) Ltd and is based in Cape Town. You can follow us on LinkedIn.

Yes. We process personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act and our Privacy Notice, and use your data only to appraise and serve your sites. If you prefer, we will sign your non-disclosure agreement before you share anything, or provide our standard mutual NDA.

Make an enquiry or email info@earthandwire.com with a recent electricity bill. We will appraise your site at no cost and come back with what renewable supply, or your surplus, could look like.