- South Africa’s National Energy Regulator (NERSA) has awarded Investec and energy trading license allowing the bank to buy power from the Illikwa Solar PV Facility, located near Parys, Free State Province, South Africa.
- Investec will sell and supply power to Investec Johannesburg office complex located at 100 Grayston Drive in Sandton.
“This licence is more than a regulatory milestone landmark – it’s about unlocking competitive advantage for our clients,” said Mpho Modise, head of renewable energy trading at Investec.
“As South Africa navigates rising energy costs and ongoing supply challenges, we are focused on providing innovative, cost-effective solutions that not only future-proof businesses but also accelerate the shift to renewable energy,” added Modise.
Related news: NERSA bungles Eskom traffic increase application, consumers to pay the R54 billion ‘mistake’
While NERSA has issued a spate of trading licenses to IPP’s, energy traders and aggregators over the last year, Eskom has pushed back with a court challenge requesting the cancellation of five trading licenses issued, fearing that they will lose customers. In a filing to the High Court, Gauteng Division, Pretoria, on 24 July 2025, Eskom argues that the current rules prohibit two or more licensees supplying the same area. Read more
Last month Lyra Energy, a strategic partnership led by Scatec, a leading renewable energy solutions provider, and STANLIB Asset Management, one of South Africa’s largest asset managers with a dedicated infrastructure investment team, was awarded a trading license.
Eskom has also decided to exclude electricity traders from its recently launched virtual wheeling platform has drawn sharp criticism as a deliberate tactic to restrict private energy traders in wheeling PPA arrangements in South Africa. The move goes against government’s policy agenda of creating a competitive wholesale electricity market introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August 2021. Read more
Eskom will also exclude municipalities that owed money to Eskom for bulk supply, from entering wheeling arrangements with independent power producers and energy traders. Municipal debt, at over R100 billion, is an existential threat to Eskom. Read more
Investec involvement in tax fraud
In its last two annual reports, Investec announced financial provisions to cover potential ‘outflows’, including penalties arising from its involvement in allegedly fraudulent ‘cum-ex’ transactions, but the bank is using an ‘extremely rare’ accounting rule to hide the potential scale of the damage. Read more
AmaBhungane has reported extensively on information suggesting Investec’s complicity in massive tax fraud here, here and here.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
1 Comment
It appears ESKOM thinks it can change its mandate at will by blocking wheeling 🙈Why does anyone want to wheel when there’s sufficient supply available at the meter now all the ESKoM failings have been addressed (and hopefully will be playing usr back for all the wasted expenditure on repairing the damage done to our generation fleet in the past decade)🙊🙉🐵