Solar wheeling: solar power credited to your meter, without panels on your roof
Wheeling brings solar power to your site over the existing Eskom or municipal grid, at an estimated R1.20 per kWh. See how the numbers could work for you, and whether wheeling, rooftop solar, or both is the right fit.
Start my energy assessment Try the wheeling estimatorScattered sites, one shifting power bill
Does this sound familiar?
We believe a business should be able to lower the bill at every site, not only the one with a big roof.
We help businesses with several sites weigh wheeling against rooftop solar, or use both.
Wheeling lets you use one site's sun, or land, to lower the bill at your other sites, without fitting panels everywhere. It is a money and metering arrangement, not a new set of wires running to your site. A solar plant feeds power into the grid at its own end. You keep drawing power from the grid at your end, exactly as you do today. What changes is the paperwork behind your meter: the units that plant fed in are matched against the units you use each month and credited to your account. You pay the plant's agreed rate for those units, plus your utility's wheeling fee.
Think of it less like a pipe carrying water from a farm to your factory, and more like a transfer between two accounts: the value of the energy moves on paper between the generator and you, while the actual electricity you draw still comes from the nearest point on the grid, the same way it always has.
For a business with several sites, this matters because the sun, the land and the grid connection that suit a solar plant best are often nowhere near the site that actually uses the most power. Wheeling separates those two questions: where the power is generated, and where the bill needs lowering.
We start every wheeling conversation with a free energy assessment of your bill and your sites, then help you weigh wheeling against an on-site FoxESS or Sigenergy system, or both together. We handle the CoC and SSEG application for any on-site system.
And we can do the same for you.
What the numbers can look like, as an estimate
These are worked figures to show how wheeling works, not a quote. Your own figure comes from a free energy assessment.
Cut the energy price. Take a solar plant that generates about 5 GWh a year. At an estimated wheeling tariff of R1.20 per kWh, against an example blended grid price of about R2.10 per kWh, that spread comes to about R4.5 million a year in gross savings on the energy itself.
Keep most of the saving. After the wheeling fee your utility charges for using its wires, the net saving on that same 5 GWh a year comes to about R3.8 million, which means most of the gross saving stays with you.
Treat it as an estimate. These figures show the shape of a wheeling deal on a large, steady user's bill, which means your real rate, your real fee, and your real saving depend on your own site, your generator, and your utility's own charges.
Wheeling vs rooftop solar vs both
Neither one replaces the other. Our own edge is doing both: rooftop FoxESS or Sigenergy on the sites that can carry it, wheeling for the rest.
| Rooftop solar | Wheeling | Both, our approach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roof or land space needed | Yes, on your own roof or a ground mount | None. The plant sits wherever the sun, land and grid connection make sense | Panels where you have the space, wheeling for everywhere else |
| Who it suits | Any site with roof or land space and a bill worth covering | A large, steady user, usually on a medium voltage or higher connection, especially a site with no roof to spare | A business with more than one site, or more demand than one roof can carry |
| What you pay for | Your own system, once, plus any finance | An estimated solar tariff per kWh, plus your utility's own wheeling fee | Your own on-site system, plus wheeling only for what the roof can't cover |
See Solar Power Inverters and Solar Power Backup for the on-site side of that choice.
Who can wheel today
Wheeling rules are set by Eskom or by each city, not by ZenSolar. Here is what the official pages say, for the connections we checked.
| Eskom | Johannesburg (City Power) | Cape Town | Durban (eThekwini) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Live, including a virtual wheeling route | Live: City Power has its own wheeling arrangement for outside generators supplying a customer on its network | Live since March 2025, alongside an ongoing wheeling pilot | Live: wheeling tariffs published for the 2026/27 year |
| Who qualifies | Connected at medium voltage or higher, on a time of use tariff | On City Power's own network, with a use-of-system agreement in place between the generator and the city | Connected at medium or high voltage, on a time of use tariff | On the Industrial Time of Use tariff, across a wide range of connection levels |
This is a fast-moving area: some cities have a live framework today, others are still working on theirs, so the city where your site sits matters as much as the size of your bill.
In Pretoria, the City of Tshwane's own published policy does not yet let small generators wheel power.
Your own rooftop solar is worth doing everywhere we work, wheeling or not.
Registering the generator
If a solar plant connects to the grid, it has to be registered. A smaller connected generator registers with whichever utility supplies its own site, Eskom or the local municipality. A bigger one registers with the national energy regulator, NERSA, instead of holding a full generation licence. This registration belongs to the generator behind a wheeling deal, not to you as the buyer of the wheeled power.
On-site battery plus wheeling
Use cheaper power when it costs most. A battery on your own site can store cheaper power, whether that's wheeled solar, off-peak grid power, or your own rooftop solar, and give it back to you at the priciest hours of the day.
Same idea, bigger mix. The same principle that makes a battery useful on a rooftop-only system still applies once wheeling is part of the mix.
Your own mix. Your own combination of wheeling, rooftop solar and battery storage depends on your sites, your tariff and your demand pattern, which means it is exactly what a free energy assessment works out, not a fixed formula we apply to every business the same way.
What ZenSolar does
We start with a free energy assessment of your bill and your sites. We can design and install an on-site FoxESS or Sigenergy system for the sites that have the space, financed and installed the same way as any of our commercial work: see Services for the finance and installation detail. And we help you look at your supply options, including whether wheeling fits your city's rules and your tariff.
Not sure how the numbers stack up for your own bill?
Try the wheeling estimatorWhat actually happens in a wheeling deal
These are the steps the official paperwork actually follows, in the order they usually happen.
1
We start with a free energy assessment
We look at your bill, your sites, and whether wheeling, rooftop solar, or both make sense for you.
2
The generator's own paperwork
A generator applies to Eskom or the municipality, gets a cost estimate letter, then signs a connection and use-of-system agreement.
3
Your own supply agreement is amended
You, or your municipality where you sit inside a metro's network, sign an amendment to your existing electricity supply agreement, or use Eskom's own virtual wheeling route where it fits.
4
Power and credits start flowing
Once the paperwork and metering are in place, the generator's output is matched against your usage each month, and you're billed for the wheeled tariff plus the utility's own fee.
Finance available through South Africa’s leading banks
Why look at wheeling with ZenSolar first?
With us
- A free energy assessment of your real numbers, before anything is signed
- Wheeling weighed honestly against rooftop solar, or both together
- Your own city's rules checked before you commit
- An on-site system, if you want one, backed by our 10-year swap-out warranty
With them
- A sales pitch before your own numbers are checked
- Rooftop solar never mentioned as an option
- Your city's own rules not checked first
- No clear warranty behind any on-site kit
- A single path pushed, whether or not it fits your site
Frequently asked questions
Wheeling lets you buy power from a solar plant somewhere else, and get credit for it on your account at your own site, using the existing Eskom or municipal grid. No new wire is built between the plant and you. It's a money and metering arrangement, not a delivery of the same electrons.
The generator connects to the grid and signs a use-of-system agreement with Eskom or the municipality. Your own electricity supply agreement is then amended to add the wheeling arrangement, or, where it fits, you use Eskom's own virtual wheeling route. Once that's in place, the generator's output is measured and matched against your usage each month, and you're billed for the wheeled energy tariff plus the utility's own fee.
Two separate agreements sit behind every wheeling deal. The generator signs a connection and use-of-system agreement with Eskom or the municipality that owns the wires. You, as the buyer, sign an amendment to your existing electricity supply agreement, or, for Eskom's virtual wheeling route, a dedicated virtual wheeling agreement, so the wheeled units can be credited to your account.
No. Use-of-system, network, administration and loss charges from your municipality or Eskom still apply on top of the wheeled energy tariff. What you save on is the energy charge itself, not the fee for carrying it over the wires.
With Eskom, a buyer needs a connection at medium voltage or higher, and a time of use tariff. City rules differ: some of our five metros already have a live wheeling framework, others don't yet. We check your own city's rules for your site before you commit to anything.
Eskom sets its own wheeling and use-of-system charges, and they change on Eskom's own schedule. We don't quote a specific current Eskom rate here, since it isn't ours to set. On this page, the R1.20 per kWh solar tariff is our own working estimate, clearly marked, not Eskom's own published rate.
No new generation equipment is needed for wheeling itself. You need a compatible meter and the signed agreements above. The solar plant is built at a separate site, chosen for the sun, land and grid connection.
Yes. Many businesses put rooftop solar with a FoxESS or Sigenergy inverter and battery where they have roof space, and use wheeling to cover the sites, or the demand, that roof can't reach. It's one coordinated plan, not a single answer for every site.
The generator behind a wheeling deal needs to register with NERSA, or with whichever utility supplies its own site, depending on its size and connection. This registration belongs to the generator, not to you as the buyer of the wheeled power.
No. It's our current working estimate to show how wheeling works, not a quote or a set price. Your real figure depends on the generator, the deal on offer, and your own site, and comes from a free energy assessment.
Wheeling is built for a business with a large, steady electricity bill, usually on a medium voltage or higher connection. It isn't aimed at a small site on an ordinary tariff. If that's you, rooftop solar sized to your own site is usually the better starting point.
We start with a free energy assessment of your bill and your site. We can design and install an on-site FoxESS or Sigenergy system for the sites that have the space. And we help you look at your supply options, including whether wheeling fits your city's rules.
Not ready for a full assessment? Try the wheeling estimator first, or talk to us about your options.
Request a solar quote for your business
Tell us about your business and your electricity use. We will size a system and finance option, then confirm a real quote after a short site check.