- The Shoprite Group has become one of the first local businesses to wheel renewable power through Cape Town’s energy grid, reducing its reliance on the national grid.
- The solar PV system at Checkers Hyper Brackenfell generates excess electricity, which is wheeled back to the group’s home office.
- This initiative supports Cape Town’s energy independence and Shoprite’s climate goals.
With its home office based in Brackenfell the Shoprite Group has become one of the first local businesses to wheel renewable power through the City of Cape Town’s energy grid, using renewable energy and reducing its reliance on the national grid.
Wheeling involves the buying and selling of electricity between private parties, using an existing grid to transport power from where it is generated to an end-user. It creates greater access to affordable renewable energy and contributes to relieving the country’s electricity crisis.
Excess electricity generated by Checkers Hyper Brackenfell at Fairbridge Mall is purchased by Enpower Trading, a Nersa-licenced electricity trader, who then facilitates the sale thereof back to the Shoprite Group for use at the retailer’s adjacent home office campus.
Operating since 2021, the solar PV system, in the form of a carport at Fairbridge Mall, consists of roughly 2 500 solar panels, with a capacity of 1 219 kWp and provides approximately 35% of the mall’s annual electricity requirements.
“The City of Cape Town’s electricity wheeling pilot project was launched in the last 12 months, which allows the Shoprite Group to now wheel excess electricity to other sites,” spokesperson for the Shoprite Group Angelique Wagner told TygerBurger.
The excess electricity generated at Fairbridge Mall is sold to Enpower Trading, a NERSA-licensed electricity trader, and then purchased back from them at published tariffs from the City of Cape Town. At present, all the excess electricity is used by the Group.
According to chief sustainability officer at the Shoprite group Sanjeev Raghubir, the group’s consumption of renewable energy in 2023 nearly doubled to 103,234 MWh from the previous year’s 54,138 MWh.
“With renewable electrons now flowing through Cape Town’s energy grid, we are another step closer to our climate goals of being carbon neutral by 2050,” he said.
According to the City’s former Mayco member for energy Beverley van Reenen the City’s reliance on the national grid will be significantly reduced in the coming years.
“This as the energy market steadily grows with the emergence of utility scale independent power producers and small-scale power generators selling their excess power to the City and other customers through embedded generation and wheeling.”
