By: BR Reporter – IOL Business Report

Shoprite Group has partnered with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) licensed energy trader, Enpower Trading, to participate in the City of Cape Town’s renewable energy wheeling pilot.

It said in a statement yesterday this promised to be a new key tool in their carbon reduction strategy.

“The pilot allows Shoprite to generate renewable energy at their Checkers Hyper Brackenfell at Fairbridge Mall, where they have a large embedded solar system and wheel the excess energy they produce, through the municipal grid, to their head office campus,” it said.

Shoprite said following on from the pilot phase, the retailer would have the opportunity to greatly increase their renewable energy penetration by sourcing further energy for their domestic retail footprint from Enpower Trading’s portfolio of renewable energy across the country.

Enpower Trading is one of the only companies with experience in municipal wheeling, having wheeled in the George Municipality since 2022.

James Beatty, the CEO at Enpower Trading, said, “We are excited to be part of the City’s wheeling pilot project alongside the Shoprite Group. This collaboration exemplifies our dedication to advancing renewable energy solutions and contributing to a greener future for Cape Town.”

These initial operations within Cape Town, underscore a scalable commitment to sustainable energy practices by both parties, while highlighting the potential for effective private-public co-operation in addressing the country’s energy crisis.

The City’s mayoral committee member for Energy, councillor Beverley van Reenen, said, “We’re so excited about this pilot project and we’re looking forward to working with Enpower Trading. A lot of hard work is going into the City energy programmes. Our wheeling pilot is organised in six coherent work packages that set the basis for contractual agreements, municipal wheeling and associated feed-in tariffs, metering and data requirements, wheeling implementation, which includes contracts and metering vetting as well as testing and evaluation.”