The City of Cape Town, Etana Energy and Growthpoint Properties have launched what they describe as South Africa’s first pooled wheeling model for renewable electricity across multiple properties connected to a municipal grid.
The initiative builds on a renewable electricity wheeling pilot launched in 2023 and allows renewable power generated remotely to be allocated across a portfolio of buildings rather than to individual sites.
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The first pooled allocation was completed in April 2026.
Under the pilot, renewable electricity from the Boston Hydroelectric Plant near Clarens in the Free State is wheeled through the Eskom network to Cape Town’s municipal grid, where it is distributed to a pool of Growthpoint properties.
The hydro plant is co-owned by independent power producer Serengeti Energy and Growthpoint, while Etana acts as the exclusive offtaker and licensed electricity trader.
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The arrangement currently supplies five Growthpoint properties in Cape Town, including the recently refurbished 36 Hans Strijdom building on the Foreshore, occupied by asset manager Ninety One.
The building now sources all of its grid electricity through the pooled renewable allocation.
Other participating sites include southern suburb shopping centres Constantia Village Mall, Montclare Place in Claremont and Newlands on Main, as well as Centennial Place in Century City.
More to follow
Growthpoint plans to expand the programme to more than 30 Cape Town properties spanning retail, logistics, industrial, office, healthcare and student accommodation assets.
The project follows more than 18 months of collaboration between the City, Growthpoint and Etana Energy, with support from Eskom Distribution Western Cape.
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Additional generation facilities are expected to be added to the Etana supply pool in coming months, extending renewable electricity supply to more than 25 additional Growthpoint-owned properties in Cape Town as well as the V&A Waterfront.
Estienne de Klerk, SA CEO of Growthpoint Properties, says the group officially began delivering wheeled renewable hydro-generated electricity directly to several of its buildings and their tenants.
“Pooled wheeling is the next logical step, and a significant one at that. What makes this different is scale and simplicity,” he adds.
Pooled wheeling allows electricity from one or more generation sites to be matched against the combined demand of multiple customers, rather than balancing supply and usage property by property.
According to De Klerk, this creates a more flexible and scalable model for allocating and settling electricity supply.
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