SA’s electricity reform is opening new markets for savvy entrepreneurs

When South Africa changes an energy policy, much of the public conversation understandably concentrates on the government, Eskom, electricity tariffs, investors and large infrastructure projects. But there is another question we should be asking.

Bertha Dlamini is the Founding President of African Women in Energy and Power (AWEaP).

Policy change brings with it market opportunities and work for entrepreneurs. Read policy not only as regulation. Read it as a signal of where markets are moving, where new problems will need to be solved, where customers will need new services and, ultimately, where new businesses can emerge.

SA’s Revised Electricity Pricing Policy provides a particularly important opportunity to apply this lens. The Cabinet has approved the policy for public comment, updating a framework that dates back to 2008.

At first glance, this sounds primarily like a technical regulatory matter about electricity tariffs. It is much more than that.

SA’s electricity industry is being restructured into increasingly distinct generation, transmission, distribution, trading and retail activities. The new pricing framework seeks greater transparency around the tariffs and charges that apply between generators, traders, the National Transmission Company South Africa and distributors.

This is happening alongside the implementation of the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act and SA’s movement towards a competitive electricity market. Whenever an industry is structurally reorganised in this way, new interfaces appear. And where new interfaces appear, businesses are needed to service them.

Our initial analysis identifies at least 18 categories of entrepreneurial opportunity emerging around the changing electricity system.

Some are sophisticated and regulated. Electricity trading, for example, is not an entry-level activity. But many are surprisingly accessible.

For too long, we have allowed entrepreneurship in energy to become synonymous with owning a renewable-energy project. That creates an unnecessarily high psychological and financial barrier to entry.

A young entrepreneur may conclude: “I do not have R50-million. I cannot participate in energy.”

But what if that entrepreneur could build a company that services 300 smart meters? What if another could analyse electricity consumption for 100 small businesses? What if another could maintain solar and battery installations?

And what if another could provide vegetation management, logistics, security, environmental services or drone inspections to renewable-energy and transmission projects?

One of the most immediate opportunities may be found behind the customer’s electricity meter. As electricity pricing becomes increasingly cost-reflective and transparent, understanding when, where and how electricity is consumed becomes commercially valuable.