The City of Cape Town is opening its electricity grid to private electricity sales and trading following the conclusion of a successful year-long electricity ‘wheeling’ pilot project.
Wheeling allows participants to buy electricity directly from Independent Power Producers or licenced energy traders using existing municipal grid infrastructure.
Over 562 800 kWhs of power has already been generated and wheeled across the City’s grid between private sector energy traders during the pilot phase.
On average, a home in South Africa uses around 4,500 kWh per year so 562,800 kWh would be enough to power approximately 125 homes for a year.
“In this next phase, the City will promote the scaling up of power trading across our electricity grid between qualifying private sellers, based on bilateral and multi-lateral trading agreements,” said mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
“This is the start of a changing role for municipalities in the energy space. If we consider what has been generated just in the pilot, when we scale it up, the numbers get absolutely huge so it is important that we get it right. Thank you to our City teams and private partners who have shown again that Cape Town is leading the efforts to change the energy regime,” the mayor said.
Cape Town’s wheeling pilot phase included three wheeling participants (traders), three generators and three off-takers:
- Trader (trades the generated energy over the City’s grid)
- Generator (generator of the wheeled energy)
- Off-taker (receiver of the wheeled energy)
Trader: Enpower Trading
Generator: FairBridge Mall, Brackenfell
Off-taker: Shoprite Head Office, Brackenfell
Trader: Etana Energy
Generator: Constantia Shopping Mall
Off-taker: Growthpoint Properties, City Centre
Trader: Equites Property Fund
Generator: Equites Property Fund Limited, Parow Industria
Off-taker: APF Portside, City Centre
Equites Property Fund said that the transfer of electrons from its generation site in Parow Industria to the off-taker on the Foreshore enabled the company to advance its sustainability objectives.
“We are excited about the prospect of expanding our wheeling capacity beyond the pilot to serve multiple off-takers and look forward to the moderation of wheeling tariffs to encourage greater participation in this transformative initiative,” said Equites Property Fund head of Sustainability, Irshaad Wadvalla.
“By successfully delivering renewable power to Shoprite Checkers over the past year, we have shown that energy wheeling and trading is not just viable but essential to diversifying South Africa’s power supply. We commend the City of Cape Town in paving the way for energy security and economic growth and look forward to continued collaboration in expanding renewable energy access,” said Enpower Trading CEO, James Beatty.
