The City of Cape Town has opened its electricity grid to private energy trading following the completion of a year-long wheeling pilot project. The initiative enables private-sector participants to buy electricity directly from independent power producers or licensed traders using the municipal grid.
Wheeling has facilitated the transfer of over 562 800 kWh across the city’s network. The pilot phase involved three energy trading companies – each working with a generator and an offtaker.
“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 scaling up of power trading across our electricity grid between qualifying private sellers based on bilateral and multi-lateral trading agreements,” said Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
The pilot programme included:
- Enpower Trading wheeling power from Checkers Hyper at Fairbridge Mall to Shoprite’s head office in Brackenfell.
- Etana Energy facilitating energy transfer from Constantia Village to Growthpoint’s 36 Hans Strijdom office building on the Foreshore.
- Equites Property Fund generating power at its Parow Industria site for APF Portside in the Cape Town city centre.
The initiative marks a shift in the role of municipalities in energy distribution. “If we consider what has been generated just in the pilot, when we scale it, the numbers are absolutely huge so it is important that we get it right,” says Hill-Lewis.
The pilot is “the culmination of nearly three years of continuous engagement with the city’s energy team,” says Irshaad Wadvalla, Head of Sustainability at Equites Property Fund. “We look forward to the moderation of wheeling tariffs to encourage greater participation.”
Enpower Trading CEO James Beatty says: “By successfully delivering renewable power to Shoprite 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.”
