Streamlining processes across the board between municipalities and end users, Access Energy is a freely licensed software solution that reads smart meters, stores the meter data in a meter data sharing system, and delivers that data to municipalities. The software then allows the municipality to create and load its electricity tariffs, which are then applied to a bill. It’s been hailed as a game-changer for municipalities wanting to integrate renewable energy resources into the grid.
George Municipality is the first electricity provider in the country to pilot this freely licensed software that automates the reading, processing, and billing of electricity smart meter data.
“The need for this freely licensed software pilot became evident when we considered the scaling of wheeling and renewable energy on the George Municipality’s electricity grid,” says Mr Bongani Mandla, the director of electrotechnical services at George Municipality. “The manual billing process was one of the main challenges, and resolving this meant reducing reliance and pressure on key human resources, and reducing potential errors that could occur in the billing process. Engagement with Open Access Energy on showcasing its software that they license for free, has assisted in addressing the challenge for us and we are now piloting the automation of our metering and billing services,” continued Mandla.
Wheeling is the delivery of electricity generated by a private operator in one location to a buyer or off-taker in another location via a third-party network (Utility or Municipality).
It was highlighted that the current George Municipality wheeling pilot project consists of trade between one generator and four off-takers through Enpower Trading (a NERSA licensed Energy Trader) and this entire process has now been automated using Open Access Energy’s software. The Municipality is working on further improvements to its wheeling projects and to incentivise the private sector (both generators and off-takers) to participate in this programme. These include creating a platform for customers to view accounts and access consumption and billing data in real time, forming various committees to speed up standardising the use-of-system contracts as well as moving from the 30-minute reconciliation to a Time-of-Use reconciliation.
According to Gerjo Hoffman, CEO and co-founder of Open Access Energy, the software company aims to boost the use of renewable energy by simplifying wheeling. “Our products aim to automate wheeling and serve the needs of anyone that wants to wheel energy. Our initial focus is South Africa, but our future aspiration is to offer solutions in all emerging markets globally,” says Hoffman.
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