JSE-listed real estate investment trust Growthpoint Properties South Africa has become the first party in South Africa to wheel renewable electricity through Cape Town’s energy grid, in collaboration with electricity trading company Etana Energy.

Wheeling involves electricity being bought and sold between private parties and being transported from where it is generated to end-users over long distances.

It creates greater access to affordable renewable energy and contributes to resolving the country’s electricity crisis, says Growthpoint South Africa CEO Estienne de Klerk.

As part of the City of Cape Town’s wheeling pilot project, in which Etana was selected as a participating trader, solar energy generated at Growthpoint’s Constantia Village shopping centre, in Constantia, is being exported into Cape Town’s electricity grid for use at Growthpoint’s 36 Hans Strijdom office building, in the Foreshore, which is home to the offices of financial services providers Investec and Ninety One.

Growthpoint and the city signed a wheeling agreement at the end of August and renewable energy was successfully transferred to and through the city’s grid for the first time on September 10.

The city’s six-month pilot project includes 15 wheeling participants representing 25 generators and 40 customers.

The pilot is laying the groundwork for future wheeling in Cape Town and will enable businesses to use energy from rooftop solar panels across multiple locations. This encourages customers to optimise solar capacity instead of limiting it to individual building use.

“Overall, Cape Town is planning to add up to 1 GW of independent power to end loadshedding in the city over time. The exact energy mix may vary, but we expect wheeling to contribute up to 350 MW to the grid.

“This is good news for the economy and the coming energy transition, which Cape Town is proud to be at the forefront of,” says Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

De Klerk adds that the wheeling project brings Growthpoint closer to its climate commitments of being carbon neutral by 2050 and providing clean green energy to its tenants in Cape Town.

In turn, allowing the wheeling of electricity to municipal connected customers will accelerate Etana’s mission of bringing much-needed renewable energy generation onto the grid in South Africa.

Etana is a licensed electricity trader that supplies electricity generated by renewable energy projects to businesses in South Africa using the national grid.

Etana’s customers benefit from certified low-carbon electricity at tariffs that are competitive to that of Eskom and municipalities, while offering forward price certainty and flexible contracting terms.