Vodacom has marked the first anniversary of its commercial virtual wheeling solution in South Africa, highlighting the model’s transition from a technical concept into an operational mechanism for accessing renewable energy at scale.
A year ago, Vodacom became the first company in South Africa to fully operationalise commercial virtual wheeling at scale. The achievement was supported by Mezzanine, the majority-owned Vodacom subsidiary that developed the digital platform used to aggregate energy consumption data across multiple distributed sites and reconcile it with energy generated by independent power producers.
The historic virtual wheeling agreement between Vodacom and Eskom was signed in 2023. Following two years of technical and regulatory work, the mechanism moved into commercial operation in September 2025, with monthly refunds processed from November 2025.
The completed 12-month period from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026 has demonstrated that the contractual mechanisms and digital infrastructure can support energy data handling, claim validation, reconciliation and financial settlement.
Vodacom said the solution was developed in partnership with Eskom to reduce complexity, use technology to overcome legacy limitations, improve access to renewable energy and encourage private-sector participation in addressing South Africa’s energy challenges.
Virtual wheeling enables organisations with electricity demand spread across multiple municipalities to access renewable energy without requiring generation at each individual site. Instead of creating a one-to-one relationship between a generator and customer, the model aggregates consumption across multiple locations and matches it with renewable generation.
For Vodacom, the model addresses the complexity of its nationwide operations, which include more than 15,000 distributed low-voltage sites across 168 licensed municipalities supplied directly by Eskom. The company is pursuing an ambition to source 100% of its electricity demand from renewable sources.
Vodacom said the initiative also forms part of its Climate Transition Plan, which includes increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency.
The company’s first full year of commercial operation provides a working example of how digital infrastructure and collaboration between public and private-sector stakeholders can support renewable energy procurement. The model could also provide a framework for other large businesses with distributed electricity demand seeking to participate in South Africa’s energy transition.
