Municipal credit risk poses big challenge as Eskom gears up to implement virtual wheeling

The credit risk associated with municipalities in arrears to Eskom poses a challenge to the roll-out of the utility’s proposed virtual wheeling platform and is also likely to limit the ability of corporates with distributed facilities to rely exclusively on virtual wheeling as currently conceived to meet their net-zero commitments. Eskom aims to launch the platform – which allows for one or more generators to transact with multiple customers that have disbursed operational footprints, including ones located in municipal distribution areas – in the second half of 2024.