Johann Rupert’s energy exchange taking on Eskom

The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa has appointed a new chief executive, Wayne Cowie, and is set to grow its offering to South African companies.

Johann Rupert’s Remgro started the Energy Exchange of Southern Africa to bring together green energy producers and electricity consumers.

In November 2022, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) awarded an electricity trading license to The Energy Exchange.

In March 2023, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) announced it had acquired a 25% shareholding in Remgro’s Ubiquity Energy platform, the holding company of the Energy Exchange.

The company started selling electricity to South African companies in June 2023, connecting its pipeline of buyers and sellers.

Today, it is a market-leading supplier of grid-connected renewable energy to South African corporates, industrials and SMEs.

“Our Nersa trading licence allows us to deliver renewable energy and its associated green credits to our customers under flexible contracting terms,” the company said.

It explained that its wind and solar energy help companies meet their NetZero ambitions at a lower price than what Eskom charges.

“We make our customers’ green energy procurement experience seamless, sustainable and cost-effective,” the company said.

“We offer our customers a predictable electricity price path, compared to unpredictable utility electricity cost increases experienced under the current system.”

The Energy Exchange delivers electricity by wheeling it from a generator to an end-user in another area using an existing transmission or distribution network.

This delivery may also happen across multiple different distribution networks, such as through Eskom to a municipality.

Renewable energy is generated at the most efficient locations across the country to customers through the Eskom national grid.

It said this offering is part of the solution to eliminate load-shedding by increasing the generation capacity connected to the national grid.

How it works

The Energy Exchange gives electricity generators a single market for their surplus capacity and makes it easy for them to convert surplus capacity into revenue.

Energy consumers, in turn, are given more control over their energy costs, more certainty around future pricing, and potentially better defences against interruptions.

Licensed energy generators feed surplus electricity into the national grid, and the customer draws the requisite energy.

When energy is purchased from the Energy Exchange, the amount of electricity generated and consumed is measured in real time.

Energy Exchange customers are then charged for the energy they consume at the agreed rate.

Customers can choose to purchase all or part of their energy requirements through The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa.

The exchange’s blended supply and aggregation model brings greater savings than purchasing renewable energy from a single plant.

It also provides redundancy. If a single plant’s load temporarily reduces, the exchange can sell energy from another plant to a client to mitigate or entirely avoid downside price risk.

The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa also has an aggregated agreement with Eskom to ensure clients do not have to pay for surplus energy.

New chief executive

The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa appointed Wayne Cowie as its new chief executive on 1 October 2024.

“I am excited to get stuck in alongside our talented team and help enable our transition to clean energy,” Cowie said.

Before joining the Energy Exchange, he was managing director for BlueWave Solar’s project finance and merger and acquisition activities.

In this position, he was responsible for raising development, construction and long-term capital and managing the sale of project portfolios to tier-1 investors.

He was a member of the BlueWave senior executive team and also served as managing director of the BlueWave South Africa solar development business.

Cowie took over from Rekha Sinath, who served as interim CEO while the company was looking for a permanent chief executive.

Cowie’s management team includes Aishah Gire as COO, Monique Jordaan as head of legal and commercial, Shailin Moodley as head of product, Henri van Eetveldt as head of business development.

Remgro stalwart and former Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys is chairman of the Energy Exchange of Southern Africa.

Other board members are the RMB investment banking director Dario Musso, RMB senior investment banker Philip De Villers, and Remgro’s Willem van Wyk.