Investec, the niche private banking and wealth management group, is seeking a licence to trade electricity, looking to power its Johannesburg headquarters with solar power — with 2026 set to be a watershed year for renewable energy projects as several are due to come online.
The group has approached the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) for the requisite licence.
“Investec Bank... hereby notifies that a licence application has been lodged with Nersa to trade electricity. Subject to the approval of Nersa, these trading activities will be conducted over Eskom’s transmission and distribution networks.
“Investec Bank... will buy power from the Illikwa Solar PV Facility, located near Parys, Free State Province, SA. Investec Bank will sell and supply power to Investec Bank (facilities), located at 100 Grayston Drive in Sandown, Sandton.”
Mainstream Renewable Power in December said it had reached financial close on its 50MW Ilikwa solar PV plant. It said the power from the plant would supply multiple private commercial and industrial customers under flexible, shorter-term power purchase agreements in a new-to-market product called renewable energy supply agreements.
Investec, headed by Fani Titi, is a project partner, providing pre-construction development finance as well as debt and equity finance for the construction of the plant.
Mainstream has a 70% equity stake in the project and Investec has a 30% equity stake. Construction of the plant has already begun, and is expected to reach commercial operation in early 2026.
In the application, Investec said it would trade electricity generated by a solar photovoltaic project.
“All trading activities will initially occur within the borders of SA, through wheeling across the transmission and distribution systems operated by Eskom only (that is no municipal networks are relevant to this application, though it is envisaged that trading will take place throughout the Republic of SA on both Eskom and municipal distribution networks in future),” the application reads.
Nersa in October approved four new electricity trading licences, along with the country’s first private import/export licence. The trading licences, which Eskom opposed, were granted to Discovery Green, Green Electron Market, CBI Electric Apollo and GreenCo Power Services.
The import/export licence was issued to GreenCo Power Services. Eskom had argued that Nersa’s rules do not allow for the issuance of licences to private traders in areas in which Eskom’s distribution entity holds a licence.
JSE-listed financial services group Discovery launched the renewable energy business in September 2023 with plans to provide enrolled businesses with renewable energy by 2026.
Discovery Green head André Nepgen told Nersa that the company had already procured 1.3GW of renewable energy and that it had made a strong case for why it should be granted a trading licence.
Eskom responded angrily to Nersa’s decision to grant the licences to the private players, saying at the time it would seek a judicial review of Nersa’s decision.
Investments into renewable energy projects has heated up over the past five years. Seriti Green last year said that its R4.8bn wind farm in the coal belt of Mpumalanga was on course to be completed by mid-2026. The 155MW project marks the first phase of a 900MW project Seriti Green aims to build over the next three years at an estimated cost of R25bn.
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