JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Growthpoint Properties, South Africa’s largest-listed property group, is looking to expand its solar power capacity to cope with rising energy costs as rolling blackouts continue unabated.
State electricity utility Eskom is implementing the worst rolling blackouts on record, leaving households in the dark for up to 10 hours a day. The outages have hit retail tenants hard, forcing them to pay millions of rand for diesel to power generators.
Growthpoint said it will more than double its renewable energy generation in the coming months to power its retail sites, raising generation from 13.5 megawatts peak (MWp) to 27.4 MWp before the end of June.
Smaller rival Attacq also announced on Tuesday plans to reduce its reliance on diesel generators, opting for solar and battery power.
Despite the move to increase its renewable power generation, Growthpoint will continue to use diesel generators as it awaits regulatory clarity on renewable energy usage from the government, which is expected to amend some rules under the national state of disaster.
Growthpoint spent 47 million rand ($2.55 million) on diesel to power generators across its South African portfolio in the six months to Dec.31. This added to its operating expenses, which increased in the period.
“Our focus remains steadily optimising our South African portfolio, including reducing its reliance on the national electricity grid and fossil fuels,” Chief Executive Norbert Sasse said.
The company earlier reported a 1.3% increase in distributable income per share, but warned that growth is expected to be muted in 2023 due to uncertainty in the global macroeconomic environment.
Growthpoint, with a portfolio of 541 properties across South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Romania, said vacancies increased in its home retail sector, but decreased in the office and industrial sectors.
($1 = 18.4066 rand)
(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Nqobile Dludla ; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Varun H K and Sharon Singleton)
