The need for reliable, affordable power is a day-to-day requirement – and growing. In South Africa, sellers of electricity – independent power producers (IPPs) and traders – are central in meeting this need, yet they face a marketplace that is fragmented, complex, and often hard to navigate. Gerjo Hoffman, CEO of Open Access Energy, makes the point that to build a stronger energy future, we need solutions that simplify the process, reduce risk, and open the door to more transparent trading. Here he explains Energypro, a software suite developed by Open Access Energy and designed to make energy trading easier, smarter, and faster.
Too often, IPPs spend weeks preparing proposals and cost estimates, and buyers struggle to compare offers that don’t align. This results in missed opportunities, stalled projects, and an erosion of trust in the market.
Energypro provides a single space where sellers can build professional, comparable proposals quickly and efficiently, manage energy flows, and execute transactions with confidence. At its core, Energypro streamlines the allocation of energy across the grid, ensuring supply and demand are matched accurately and transparently, and offering full visibility into performance and settlement.
How does it work?
Consider a mining company weighing up two different offers, each with its own contract length, structure, and level of risk. On the surface, the numbers are hard to compare, and the risk in choosing the wrong option is high. Energypro simplifies this by standardising the proposals, running the numbers against the mine’s actual consumption profile, and showing the true cost and risk implications – all done within minutes rather than weeks.
Why is it needed?
South Africa’s energy market is steadily turning towards a clean energy mix, distributed energy resources, and a more open electricity market. Demand for energy has always been great, grid instability persists, and more private producers are entering the market at pace. Without the right systems in place to support their decisions, buyers risk signing unfavourable deals, and suppliers can face costly delays. By introducing transparency and trust, Energypro allows new projects to accelerate, it reduces risk, and expands access to affordable, reliable power.
Sellers need the tools to demonstrate value with speed and accuracy. Energypro is designed to make it easier for sellers to quantify and present the long-term value of their energy offers clearly and confidently. By simplifying proposals, improving the accuracy of comparisons, and streamlining transactions, it enables faster decisions and stronger relationships between sellers and buyers.
At Open Access Energy, we believe the industry doesn’t need more complexity, it needs clarity, simplicity, and accuracy. Every deal should be transparent and based on correctly applied tariffs that reflect true costs and value. That’s what we’re working to deliver: a smarter, more reliable way to bring buyers and sellers together, one deal at a time.
Making wheeling and trading easier
Open Access Energy builds software infrastructure to enable electricity wheeling and energy trading in South Africa. The tools it designs support IPPs and traders and municipalities in managing metering, tariff reconciliation, and wheeling transactions for decentralised energy systems.
For more information visit: https://openaccess.energy/
