Financial services group and property owner Investec will use its generator resources from its Sandton building to provide continuous operation of traffic lights to alleviate congestion at the intersections of Grayston Drive and Rivonia Road, and Grayston Drive and West Road South.
Investec is the first property owner to partner with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and the Sandton Central Management District in a new initiative that will enable traffic lights at major Sandton intersections to operate during load-shedding using generator power sourced from adjacent buildings.
Founded by property owners, the Sandton Central Management District manages the public space bound by Sandton Drive, Katherine Street into Wierda Road East and West, West Street, along Rivonia Road and including Grayston Drive.
The JRA is responsible for redesigning the signal wiring to allow for a secondary power connection to the nearest adjacent property.
Participating property owners facilitate the necessary connection to their own backup power system, whether solar, generator or UPS, so traffic lights can function when load-shedding kicks in.
According to the JRA, powering traffic lights at intersections requires 300W-500W of power — equivalent to powering a laptop.
“We view this initiative as corporate social responsibility [CSI] — a minor fraction of what we use at any given time, and it’s not a material cost to our business given how much is required to power an intersection,” said Investec Group COO Stuart Spencer.
Spencer said the group invested R45,000 to facilitate the connection from their generators to these intersections.
The Investec building on the corner of Grayston and Rivonia Roads measures about 68,000m2 of office space excluding parking, and houses about 4,000 staff members.
“Our monthly diesel spend is about R2m, and the challenge is that our electricity bill is not reducing,” said Spencer.
In 2020 the City of Joburg changed the traffic lights to light emitting diodes (LEDs), which use very little electricity and are more efficient than incandescent light bulbs.
The city continues to invest in technology and find innovative ways to improve efficiencies, said Sipho Nhlapo, acting HOD for mobility and freight at the JRA.
Nhlapo said interested businesses in the Sandton area include Blue Label Telecoms, Gold Fields and Nedbank.
“This initiative isn’t about Sandton; we would like to see about 2,020 intersections in the city function during load-shedding through partnerships such as this one,” said Nhlapo.
Member of the mayoral committee (MMC) in the City of Joburg, councillor Kenny Kunene, said the government cannot achieve much on its own, hence partnerships with the private sector are critical to good governance.
He said business is always prepared to assist the government, but has lost confidence in the public sector’s ability to execute on its mandate with financial resources not being used as intended.
“When we come up with initiatives of this nature, businesses are ready to help — hence we’ll never ask for money from the sector, but infrastructure and resources to help us roll out various projects such as this one,” said Kunene.
Elaine Jack, district improvement manager of Sandton Central Management District, said this project will give much-needed relief to motorists and ensure Sandton’s roads are safer for everyone.
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