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Renewable Energy Wheeling
SOLA was the first Independent Power Producer (IPP) to be awarded a generation licence for a private utility-scale renewable power plant outside of the public renewable energy procurement process, the first company to finance a utility-scale renewable wheeling project, and the first to wheel green energy at scale across the national grid.
What is Wheeling?
Energy wheeling is the process of transmitting electricity generated by an IPP (like a solar farm) from its point of generation to an end-user through the national or municipal electricity grid. Instead of being confined to the energy sources available directly from your local utility, wheeling empowers businesses to access renewable energy from a remote location. Energy generation and consumption data are then aggregated on a monthly basis, and a credit is applied directly to each buyer’s Eskom electricity account.
Eskom’s wheeling mechanism allows any buyers connected to the Eskom network to benefit from PPAs from SOLA’s renewable energy fleet, regardless of an individual buyer’s location. SOLA pioneered the large-scale wheeling of renewable power with the implementation of the 12 MW Adams solar PV project for Amazon. Our 260 MW solar wheeling facility for Tronox Mineral Sands is the second of this type to deliver power to the grid.
Renewable energy wheeling allows energy users to buy clean power at a lower cost than coal-based electricity, while contributing to the implementation and connection of much-needed generation capacity on the South African power network. Both the generator and the buyer pay connection fees to Eskom to enable the wheeling transaction, ensuring that the national grid secures revenue for ongoing maintenance and improvement.
Reasons for choosing a renewable wheeling project:
01.
Save space by avoiding onsite generation. If your facility lacks land or requires land for other core operations, you can choose to wheel from a remotely located generation facility.
02.
Increased renewable energy penetration. Wheeling allows for increased usage of renewable energy, due to the manner in which Eskom meters and reconciles wheeling credits in the accounts of wheeling enabled buyers. Higher penetration of renewable means more savings and lower carbon emissions.
03.
Reduced costs. We build our wheeling facilities in the best locations which optimise generation output. This leads to lower tariffs and greater savings, relative to generation alongside our buyers’ electrical load points.
Have a question for us?
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