Cape Town opens electricity grid to energy traders after successful pilot

Today, the City of Cape Town officially opened the electricity grid to energy traders after a year-long “wheeling” pilot project. Equites is proud to have been involved as one of three participants in the pilot and will remain a partner to the City in this initiative.

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.

‘Today we officially signal the full opening of Cape Town’s wheeling regime after a successful year-long pilot. 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.

‘This is an exciting leap forward to diversify our electricity supplier-base beyond Eskom to a future of decentralised electricity trading in South Africa. More than half a million kilowatt hours have already been wheeled across Cape Town’s grid during the pilot phase between three energy companies generating power from a number of sources. ‘Enpower Trading, Etana Energy and Equites Fund Property have been our trailblazers in the pilot programme and will continue to be valuable partners. 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,’ said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. 

About the pilot-phase participants

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 Limited
Generator: Equites Property Fund Limited, Parow Industria
Off-taker: APF Portside, City Centre

Equites Property Fund

‘Equites Property Fund’s successful participation in the City’s Energy Wheeling Pilot Project marks the culmination of nearly three years of continuous engagement with the City’s energy team – an experience that brought invaluable learnings and unwavering support from all involved. The transfer of electrons from our generation site in Parow Industria to the off-taker on the Foreshore enabled us to advance our sustainability objectives while contributing to the broader adoption of green energy through this innovative mechanism. 
 
‘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.