SAIEE Load Research Chapter | “Wheeling in South Africa’s Open Energy Market”

This presentation was given by Gerjo Hoffman during an online meeting of the SAIEE Load Research Chapter on 23 June 2026. South Africa’s electricity market has opened up, and wheeling now allows energy to be bought, sold and moved across the grid in new ways. This talk takes a high-level look at what that shift means in practice for municipalities and energy buyers: How municipalities can purchase energy, and the options available to them relative to wheeling; The operationalisation of PPAs, and what it takes to move from signature to a working transaction; How buyers of energy can make sense of the many different offers pitched to them; Traditional wheeling versus virtual wheeling, and where each one fits. Contents: 00:00 Introduction 03:49 Presentation 33:10 Questions & discussion Presenter: Gerjo Hoffman is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Open Access Energy (OAE), which he established in 2021. OAE is the neutral infrastructure on which South Africa's wheeling market runs. Through its Energypro platform, it operates the country's first multilateral wheeling marketplace, matching generation and demand and settling every transaction. Under Gerjo’s leadership, OAE connects independent power producers, traders, corporate off-takers and municipalities through PPA structuring, matching, billing, settlement and reconciliation, and sits at the centre of the country's liberalising electricity market. OAE is backed by climate-technology investors E3 Capital, Equator and Factor E Ventures. A recognised voice on energy market reform, Gerjo believes that a liquid, open market for private power, underpinned by accurate and standardised trading processes, is central to expanding access for private generation and building confidence in every transaction. Prior to founding OAE, he spent more than a decade in senior commercial and innovation leadership across the technology and media sectors, including Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Tencent Africa, Head of Marketing at WeChat Africa, and earlier roles at Media24 and Naspers.