• Growthpoint Properties has announced that it is the party to wheel renewable electricity via the City of Cape Town’s power grid.
• The wheeling was completed in collaboration with licenced trader Etana Energy.
• The electricity was wheeled for Growthpoint’s 36 Hans Strijdom office building in the Foreshore, where Investec and Ninety One are housed.

Much has been made of electricity wheeling, a process where electricity is bought and sold between private parties, using the existing grid to transport power. With the City of Cape Town being one of the first municipalities to give the green light on wheeling, now Growthpoint has become the first party to wheel renewable electricity via the City’s power grid in collaboration with licensed electricity trader Etana Energy.

The property specialists wheeling pilot project, saw renewable electricity generated via solar energy at Growthpoint’s The Constantia Village shopping centre being exported into Cape Town’s power grid for use at Growthpoint’s 36 Hans Strijdom office building in the Foreshore, where Investec and Ninety One are located.

“A wheeling agreement between the City and Growthpoint was signed at the end of August and, in a milestone for renewable energy in Cape Town, solar power from The Constantia Village was successfully injected into the City’s energy grid for the first time on Sunday, 10 September 2023,” the company explains in a press release sent to Hypertext.

It adds that the City’s six-month pilot project includes 15 wheeling participants representing 25 generators and 40 customers. The pilot is expected to lay the groundwork for future wheeling in Cape Town, as well as enable businesses to use energy from rooftop solar panels across multiple locations.

“This project brings Growthpoint closer to our climate commitment of being carbon neutral by 2050 and is the starting point to providing clean green energy to our tenants in Cape Town to further their environmental commitments,” enthuses Estienne de Klerk, SA CEO of Growthpoint Properties (pictured above).

“Overall, Cape Town is planning to add up to one gigawatt of independent power to end loadshedding in the city over time. The exact mix may vary, but we expect wheeling to contribute up to 350MW to the grid in time. Congratulations to the pioneering private sector players who successfully wheeled the very first electrons, and thanks to the City’s team who worked to get the enabling legislation, billing engine, and wheeling agreements in place. This is good news for the economy and the coming energy transition, which Cape Town is proud to be at the forefront of,” highlights City of Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

With South Africa’s energy crisis ongoing, along with its toll on local businesses only set to worsen, it looks like the private sector will indeed need to embrace suck solutions moving forward.

As such, Growthpoint has laid out a solid blueprint for going about it.

“The City’s wheeling pilot aims to test and validate the contracting framework and billing engine for full-scale implementation. This initial transaction sets the foundation for Growthpoint to wheel clean energy to all its buildings in Cape Town in the future, including Ninety One’s office for the long term at 36 Hans Strijdom,” the company’s release concludes.

[Image – Pieter van Noorden on Unsplash]