--- title: "The WEPS System Explained: How Wheeling Credits Work" description: "How Eskom's Wheeling Energy Purchase System applies credits to your electricity bill, what the wheeling fees are, and how reconciliation works." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BlogPosting", "headline": "The WEPS System Explained: How Wheeling Credits Work", "description": "How Eskom's Wheeling Energy Purchase System applies credits to your electricity bill, what the wheeling fees are, and how reconciliation works.", "url": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/resource-hub/the-weps-system-explained-how-wheeling-credits-work", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/resource-hub/the-weps-system-explained-how-wheeling-credits-work" }, "datePublished": "2026-08-11", "dateModified": "2026-08-11", "inLanguage": "en-ZA", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Energy Brokers", "url": "https://energy-brokers.co.za" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/#organization" } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Resource Hub", "item": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/resource-hub" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "The WEPS System Explained: How Wheeling Credits Work", "item": "https://energy-brokers.co.za/resource-hub/the-weps-system-explained-how-wheeling-credits-work" } ] } ] --- [![Energy Brokers](/assets/energy-brokers-logo-BA7vJ5S5.png)](/) [Home](/) Services [Market Review](/market-review)[Calculator](/wheeled-energy-calculator)[The Group](/the-solink-group)[Resources](/resource-hub)[Careers](/careers)[Contact](/contact) [Wheeling Calculator](https://wheeling-calculator.energy-brokers.co.za/)[Get in touch](/contact) [← Back to Resource Hub](/resource-hub) # The WEPS System Explained: How Wheeling Credits Work 11 August 2026 · Energy Brokers ![The WEPS System Explained: How Wheeling Credits Work](/__l5e/assets-v1/b3b07d4e-57e3-4495-b2d6-85ac8b36849b/eskom-wheeling-framework-transmission-pylons-south-africa.webp) If you have looked into wheeled energy, you have encountered the acronym WEPS — and probably found it explained either not at all or in language written for engineers. The Wheeling Energy Purchase System is the mechanism Eskom uses to account for energy that is generated in one place and consumed in another. It is the reason wheeling works commercially, and understanding it is the difference between reading your electricity bill with confidence and taking someone's word for it. Here is how it actually functions. ## The Problem WEPS Solves Electricity does not travel from a specific wind farm to a specific factory. Once energy enters the national grid it is indistinguishable from every other electron on the network. Physically, your business consumes whatever is nearest. So when an Independent Power Producer generates 500 MWh in the Northern Cape and your facility in Gauteng consumes 500 MWh, no one is tracing particular electrons across the country. What is happening is an accounting transaction. The IPP injects a measured quantity into the grid; you withdraw a measured quantity elsewhere; Eskom reconciles the two and adjusts your bill accordingly. WEPS is that reconciliation. It is a metering and settlement framework, not a delivery mechanism. ## How the Credit Reaches Your Bill The sequence works like this. The IPP's facility is metered at its point of connection, recording energy injected into the grid. Your facility is metered as it always has been, recording energy withdrawn. Both sets of data go to Eskom. Eskom then matches your contracted wheeled volume against your actual consumption and applies a credit to your account for the energy accounted for under the wheeling arrangement. You continue to receive an Eskom bill — this is important, and it surprises people. You are not billed by the IPP for delivery and by Eskom separately for the remainder in some parallel arrangement. You receive one Eskom bill, showing your gross consumption, with the wheeled energy credited against it. You then pay the IPP separately under your Power Purchase Agreement for the energy generated. Your net position is: reduced Eskom charges, plus a PPA payment at your contracted rate, plus wheeling fees. If the PPA rate is competitive, the total is lower than buying everything from Eskom at the standard tariff. ## The Reconciliation Period Matters WEPS reconciles on a Monthly Time of Use basis. This detail has more commercial consequence than its dry phrasing suggests. Reconciliation is not instantaneous. Your consumption is not matched to generation second by second — it is matched across time-of-use periods over the month. In practice, this means a wheeled solar project can deliver useful penetration even for a business whose consumption profile does not perfectly mirror solar generation, and even where an existing on-site system appears to be sized to the full load. It also means that how your load sits across time-of-use windows affects the value you extract. Two businesses consuming identical annual volumes can see materially different outcomes from the same wheeled project depending on when they consume. This is why load profile analysis comes before project selection rather than after. ## The Wheeling Fees Eskom charges for use of the network, which is entirely reasonable — you are using infrastructure you did not fund. There are two fees. One is levied on the generator, at approximately 3 cents per kWh at the time of writing. The other is levied on the offtaker — your business — at approximately 14 cents per kWh, and this is accounted for within the WEPS rebate rather than appearing as a separate line item to be settled. Two things to hold onto. First, these fees are standard and predictable. They are not negotiable and they are not hidden, so any wheeled energy business case that does not include them is incomplete. Second, they are reviewed annually along with the rest of Eskom's tariff structure, so figures quoted anywhere — including here — should be verified against the current schedule before you build a financial model on them. Any properly constructed wheeling proposal will show these fees explicitly. If a proposal you have been given does not, that is a question worth asking. ## What Can Go Wrong Three things, in our experience. **Bill reconciliation errors.** WEPS is an accounting process across multiple parties, and accounting processes produce mistakes. Credits get misapplied, meter data arrives late, volumes are misstated. Nobody at Eskom is monitoring your bill on your behalf — the responsibility sits with you. **Deemed energy exposure.** Where an IPP generates energy that you are contractually obliged to pay for but did not consume, you can face deemed energy charges. How that risk is allocated is a PPA negotiation point, not a WEPS feature, and it is one of the more expensive clauses to get wrong. **Consumption drift.** Your load changes. Sites open, close, expand. A wheeled volume that fitted your profile at signature may not fit it in year four, and the reconciliation will reflect that. These are the reasons our operational support service exists: verification of bills, monthly reallocation, and management of the arrangement across the contract term. Getting the PPA signed is not the end of the work. ## Where to Read More Our guide to [how energy wheeling works](/how-wheeling-works) covers the end-to-end process, and the [market review](/market-review) sets out the current state of grid capacity and the regulatory picture. Common questions on costs and Eskom charges are answered in our [FAQ](/faq). If you want the arithmetic run against your actual tariff and consumption data rather than a worked example, [speak to our analysts](/contact). Energy Brokers is not tied to any IPP, and our fees are absorbed by the producer — there is no cost to you for the assessment. Keep reading ## Related articles [View all →](/resource-hub) [ ![What Is a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Why Does It Matter?](/__l5e/assets-v1/0ec7230b-8ddb-4b74-92e9-3410eceeb6c4/power-purchase-agreement-south-africa-business-handshake-renewable-energy.webp) 24 August 2026 ### What Is a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Why Does It Matter? A power purchase agreement South Africa explained: what a PPA is, how it works, and why it underpins every wheeled energy deal for C&I businesses. ](/resource-hub/power-purchase-agreement-south-africa)[ ![What Is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) and How Do They Work?](/__l5e/assets-v1/d2718b7c-94bf-4817-aef1-3c4cf5fa1fff/independent-power-producer-south-africa-wind-farm-sunset.webp) 27 August 2026 ### What Is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) and How Do They Work? An independent power producer South Africa generates the renewable energy behind every PPA and wheeling deal. Here is how IPPs work. ](/resource-hub/independent-power-producer-south-africa)[ ![How Does Energy Wheeling Work in South Africa?](/__l5e/assets-v1/8a1d941c-ca72-46db-95fa-88c8da402b54/how-does-energy-wheeling-work-south-africa-wind-turbines.jpg) 20 April 2026 ### How Does Energy Wheeling Work in South Africa? ](/resource-hub/how-does-energy-wheeling-work-in-south-africa) Newsletter ### Stay ahead of the energy market Get monthly market insights, regulatory updates and wheeling news delivered to your inbox. Name Email Subscribe Energy Brokers Independent South African energy advisory — structuring wheeled energy deals, PPAs and feasibility analysis for commercial and industrial offtakers. 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