- The Energy Regulator in South Africa, NERSA, has approved that Envusa Energy (Pty) Ltd (Envusa Energy) be issued an electricity trading licence.
- Envusa Energy is a joint venture between Anglo-American and EDF Renewables South Africa (EDF).
Envusa Energy intends to buy electricity from three generators in the Northern Cape Province (Hartebeeshoek Wind Power (Pty) Ltd, 140MW; Mooi Plaats Solar Power (Pty) Ltd, 240MW; and Umsobomvu Wind Power (Pty) Ltd, 140MW). It also intends to sell to three customers (De Beers Consolidated Mines (Pty) Ltd, Limpopo; Rustenburg Platinum Mines (Pty) Ltd, North-West; and Sishen Iron Ore Company (Pty) Ltd, Northern Cape), with the contracted capacity of 140MW, 240MW and 140MW, respectively. The distributor is Eskom.
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In March 2022, Anglo-American and EDF signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the ecosystem’s development designed to meet Anglo-American’s operational power requirements in South Africa and support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems. Envusa Energy is set up as a trading entity to purchase energy from the generators and then sell the energy to the respective off-takers.
Envusa Energy is launching electricity supply projects of more than 600MW of wind and solar energy in South Africa. This is a major first step towards developing an ecosystem that is expected to generate 3 to 5GW of renewable energy by 2030. Envusa Energy intends to supply Anglo-American with a blend of renewable energy generated at Anglo-American sites and renewable energy transmitted via the national grid. This energy portfolio approach will aggregate energy from geographically dispersed renewable generating assets and allocate this energy.
Envusa Energy’s electricity trading licence application was made in accordance with section 7 of the ERA, which states that no person may operate any trading activity without a licence issued by the Energy Regulator. The application complies with section 10 of the ERA, as Envusa Energy provided the necessary details and information.
More broadly, Envusa Energy’s licence signals the increased role of traders – both within South Africa and between South Africa and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
