Build a municipal wheeling framework you can actually bill
Municipal wheeling lets a private generator sell electricity to an off-taker using a municipal distribution network, supporting renewable energy, investment and transparent use-of-system charges.
Municipal wheeling creates opportunities for municipalities to support renewable energy, attract investment, protect revenue through transparent use-of-system charges and give customers more energy procurement options. But it is not implemented uniformly across South Africa.
Each municipality needs a practical framework covering application processes, grid capacity, metering standards, billing adjustments, tariff treatment, use-of-system charges, losses, municipal revenue impacts and contractual documentation. COGTA's 2025 wheeling framework notes that many municipalities still do not have clear policies in place, and aims to assist with implementation.
Five steps to readiness
- 1
Confirm policy readiness
Review existing municipal electricity by-laws, tariff policies, supply agreements, grid connection processes and wheeling policy status.
- 2
Perform cost-of-supply and revenue impact analysis
Understand how wheeling affects electricity revenue, network costs, surcharges and cross-subsidies. NERSA's rules make tariff unbundling a key step toward a fair wheeling methodology and revenue recovery.
- 3
Develop a municipal wheeling framework
Define eligibility, application forms, connection requirements, metering requirements, billing methodology, losses, settlement cycles, use-of-system charges, dispute resolution and reporting.
- 4
Prepare agreement templates
Prepare standardised templates for wheeling agreements, use-of-system agreements, grid connection agreements and electricity supply agreement amendments.
- 5
Prepare the billing and data process
A framework is only useful if it can be implemented in billing. You need reliable monthly meter data, approved settlement logic, account crediting processes, audit trails and exception handling.
Implementation support
Municipalities that already operate smart metering, AMI or utility data platforms can often move faster, because the core wheeling requirement is trusted meter data and reliable billing reconciliation. Meerkat Energy works with utility metering data, reporting and operational dashboards that can support this implementation layer.
City of Cape Town
The City of Cape Town is one of the leading municipal wheeling examples. As of 1 March 2025, it introduced one-to-one bilateral wheeling across its electricity infrastructure at medium and high voltage levels, subject to criteria including 11 kV to 132 kV connections, Time-of-Use tariffs, suitable wheeling and use-of-system agreements, and payment of applicable wheeling use-of-system charges.
It shows wheeling is moving from concept to implementation, and that eligibility criteria and rules are municipality-specific.
Assess your municipal wheeling readiness
Work through a structured readiness check across policy, technical, regulatory and billing dimensions, or talk to a team that builds the metering and reconciliation layer municipal wheeling depends on.