Woodmead, Gauteng
A retail centre in Woodmead, Gauteng engaged SOCO ENERGY to deliver a rooftop solar and battery storage solution to reduce common area electricity costs and provide backup power for retail tenants during load-shedding. Energy security had become a material leasing issue, with several tenants citing outage risk in lease renewal negotiations.
The centre's rooftop was partially occupied by HVAC plant and presented structural weight constraints in certain sections. Tenant leases included electricity supply guarantees that created liability exposure during load-shedding events. The property fund required a zero-capex financing structure to maintain its balance sheet targets.
SOCO ENERGY conducted a detailed structural assessment and designed a 320kWp rooftop system optimised around the available roof sections, using lightweight mounting systems where required. A 640kWh BESS was deployed in a dedicated plant room to supply common areas and provide top-up supply to anchor tenants during load-shedding. The 15-year PPA was structured to provide the property fund with a fixed below-tariff electricity cost with no capital requirement.
Common area electricity costs reduced by 40%. Anchor tenants reported no loss-of-trade events attributable to load-shedding following commissioning. The property fund included the PPA structure in its 2024 sustainability report as a flagship asset-level decarbonisation initiative. Three further assets in the fund are now in assessment with SOCO ENERGY.
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