Remgro’s The Energy Exchange gets a license to trade electricity in South Africa

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has awarded an electricity trading license to Remgro’s The Energy Exchange.

The Energy Exchange joins PowerX, Enpower, and Etana as licensed traders between electricity generators and distributors or large consumers.

Remgro founded The Energy Exchange after it realised that energy security in South Africa poses a threat to its investee companies.

It invested in companies specialising in photovoltaic (PV) technologies and installations to provide onsite backup power to Mediclinic, Distell, and RCL Foods.

Large and unpredictable Eskom price increases posed another challenge and Remgro set out to create pricing certainty.

To provide energy pricing and supply security, Remgro started to build an energy trading platform to bring together green energy producers and electricity consumers.

It launched The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa, giving energy consumers access to a diverse supply of reliable, cost-effective renewable energy.

How it works

The Energy Exchange gives generators of energy 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 their 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 their energy requirements through The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa, or only a portion.

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 has a temporary reduction in load, the exchange can sell a client energy from another plant to mitigate or entirely avoid downside price risk.

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