Discovery Green is collaborating with Independent Power Producers to access energy from among the most efficient renewable energy power plant sites across the country. Power plant construction is a complex process that needs considerable funding. There are no renewable energy power plants currently in operation to which you can connect. Discovery Green has partnered with the industry's leading technical, engineering and legal expertise to offer a quick timeline for the supply of renewable energy. Discovery Green aims to start wheeling renewable energy by 2026.

For the average business, it is expensive to have on site solar energy to make a material difference to your energy use. You can continue to draw energy from your solar solution. Discovery Green will cover the balance of your energy requirements and replace it with renewable energy through wheeling. However, Discovery Green will only replace the grid tied electricity you use.

Wheeling of renewable energy is a well established practice globally, but it is still in its infancy in South Africa. Currently, national regulations allow for the wheeling of energy exclusively to high-voltage Eskom-connected clients and a select number of businesses located within certain municipal networks. Discovery Green will wheel renewable energy to your eligible sites under Eskom's traditional wheeling framework currently in use.

There has been a growing need for generation capacity and a rapid adoption of renewable energy. This has led to the imminent release of new power wheeling frameworks to support the established Eskom process that will allow wheeling of renewable energy to almost all electricity consumers in South Africa. Discovery Green will be able to wheel renewable energy to your qualifying municipality connected sites as soon as these frameworks are implemented.

Wheeling of energy does not provide complete protection from load shedding in the short term. However, generating more energy in the form of renewable energy will provide greater stability to energy generation in South Africa and lower the impact of load shedding over time.

When you enter into a Renewable Energy Supply Agreement (RESA) with Discovery Green, there are no physical changes to the infrastructure supplying you with power. The same transmission and distribution networks that supply your business with Eskom-generated electricity are used to supply you with energy from renewable energy sources. When Eskom implements load shedding, power supply is interrupted completely, including the transmission of renewable energy.

A kilowatt is a unit for measuring the rate of electricity flow at a given moment in time. Kilowatt-hours are used to measure the volume or quantity of electricity consumed over a period of time. One kilowatt-hour is the amount of electricity that is consumed from a supply of one kilowatt over the course of an hour. One megawatt is equivalent to 1000 kilowatts; one megawatt-hour is equivalent to 1000 kilowatt-hours.

The two concepts can be explained using the analogy of water flowing out of a tap. The 'kilowatt' would be the rate at which the water flows from the tap. Opening and closing the tap would either increase or reduce the number of 'kilowatts'. If one were to let the water flow out of the tap for an hour, the 'kilowatt-hour' would be the total amount of water that flowed from the tap during that hour. If one were to increase the rate at which the water flows from the tap, thereby increasing the number of 'kilowatts', more water would be collected after the hour has passed i.e. more 'kilowatt-hours'. The same volume of water ('kilowatt-hours') could be collected if, instead of increasing the rate at which the water flows from the tap ('kilowatts'), the tap was left open for a longer period of time.

Your business must have an approved electricity meter. This meter tracks electricity usage regularly to facilitate time-of-use billing. Discovery Green integrates with these meters to retrieve details of your electricity use.

Time-of-use is a classification to account for the hour of the day, the day of the month and the season of the year when a kilowatt hour of electricity is produced and used. A 24-hour period is divided into three time-of-use periods: Peak, Standard and Off-peak.

Peak periods refer to hours of the day when the demand on the national grid is at its highest, usually in the morning and evening. Eskom charges higher tariffs during Peak hours to encourage lower use. Time-of-use tariffs are higher during the winter months of June, July and August compared to the remaining months of the year.

To have a kilowatt hour of electricity you've used successfully credited against a kilowatt hour of electricity produced, both must be produced and used in the same time of use period in a calendar month. For example, a kilowatt hour of electricity supplied by Eskom that is used during Peak times in January can only be offset with a kilowatt hour of renewable electricity if the renewable electricity is produced during Peak times in January. This means a kilowatt hour of renewable electricity produced during Off peak times cannot be credited against a kilowatt hour of electricity consumed during Peak times, or against a kilowatt-hour consumed during Off-peak times in another month.

Time of use tracking enables Discovery Green to accurately measure and then reconcile the renewable electricity produced to what is consumed, which results in a saving to your business. This saving shows differently depending on the wheeling framework that is in place where your business operates. Under traditional wheeling of power, the saving reflects as a credit on your Eskom bill.

Wheeling of renewable energy will reduce your business' scope 2 emissions. For most non-industrial businesses, scope 2 emissions account for most greenhouse gas emissions. Wheeling of renewable energy is often the most effective way to achieve carbon neutrality.

A business' greenhouse gas emissions can be divided into 3 categories: scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 emissions.

Scope 1 emissions occur because of activities that are directly under the business' control. For example, fuel burned by company owned vehicles.
Scope 2 emissions occur from the direct production of energy that is used by the business. Scope 2 emissions are generated off site but are a result of the business' energy use, for example, heating and cooling. Typically, scope 2 emissions of a non industrial company account for 80% of its total greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 2 emissions are reduced through wheeling of renewable energy.
Scope 3 emissions include all other indirect greenhouse gas emissions and occur through a business' activities that are not included in scope 1 or scope 2. These emissions are often the most challenging to measure. It includes the entire value chain of the business, including suppliers, customers and other stakeholders. For example, employee commutes.

There is a financial benefit to maximising your coverage of renewable energy now as opposed to filling up your demand in incremental steps. Delays in maximising your renewable energy coverage means your business will do without the potential savings available from wheeling.

When choosing a low renewable energy coverage, your renewable energy supplier may wish to wheel power to you mainly during Off-peak periods when electricity is less expensive. Renewable energy prices may appear low to reflect this saving for the energy provider. However, you may be setting yourself up to pay higher tariffs for renewable energy in future when you increase your coverage level to begin offsetting your consumption of electricity supplied by Eskom during Peak and Standard periods.

There are also a limited number of power plant sites available with the ability to connect to the national grid. The unpredictability of future grid availability may lead to uncertainty in future renewable energy prices.

With renewable energy through Discovery Green, the saving and pricing structure provides certainty of cost and supply.