The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has granted BluEnergy Trading, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Blu Label Unlimited, a multi-year energy trading licence, positioning the company to participate in electricity procurement and trading as market reform continues to reshape South Africa’s power sector.
According to BluEnergy, the approval enables the company to buy and sell electricity and connect municipalities, independent power producers and energy users through long-term power purchase agreements supported by prepaid revenue collection and settlement infrastructure.
Chief Executive Aaron Suckerman describes the licence as a strategic enabler for the company’s entry into electricity trading, saying it allows BluEnergy to combine energy procurement with established prepaid revenue systems embedded across municipalities. The company’s operating model integrates project development, asset ownership, operations and maintenance as well as energy procurement and trading.
The approval reflects ongoing regulatory developments that are opening the electricity value chain to new private-sector participants, particularly in trading and aggregation roles linked to municipal supply and decentralised generation. Industry stakeholders increasingly view trading licences as a key mechanism for facilitating alternative procurement models as South Africa’s electricity market transitions towards greater competition and private investment.
BluEnergy’s partnership with prepaid electricity platform Cigicell, which operates in municipalities across nine provinces, is part of its strategy to support municipal energy procurement and revenue assurance. The company says its integrated approach is designed to manage technical and commercial aspects of energy delivery including grid integration, wheeling frameworks and contractual performance.
