STELLENBOSCH University’s spinout company GreenX Engineering recently became an accredited Energy Performance Certificate inspection body, accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS), and can now assist building owners to comply with the National Energy Act.
Updated legislation based on South African National Standards (SANS) 1544 (2014), mandates that all privately owned buildings, which fall under specific conditions, must have an EPC by 2025, or face substantial fines.
The conditions are that the building be larger than 2000m2; if the building is older than two years and has not undergone major renovations in the past two years; and falls under the building classifications A1, A2, A3 and G1. The other occupancy classes (that also need EPCs e.g H1) are to follow these building classifications.
As an accredited inspection body GreenX evaluates a building and submits documents on behalf of the building owners or accounting officers to the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI).
GreenX’s managing director, Dr Jason Samuels, said following an energy and spatial analysis audit, the GreenX team issued its first EPC for one part of the St Stithians College in Johannesburg. The first of the Colleges’ buildings to get an EPC was the Girls’ College and Girls’ prep sections. They received a B-rating for energy consumption with a 33 kWh/m2. The GreenX team also recently assisted another Johannesburg private school, St David’s Marist college, with their EPC. They also received a B-rating with a 36 kWh/m2 energy efficiency.
Last year, GreenX Engineerings’ initiatives helped equip Cloetesville Primary School, in Stellenbosch, with energy-saving technology, making it the first school in South Africa to receive an energy performance certificate (EPC). The school received an A-rating for the electrical consumption of the system, with 17 kWh/m2. Samuels was part of the team that switched on another no-fee school’s new PV system – that of Ikaya Primary School in Stellenbosch’s Kayamandi. The school received a hybrid 12 kW photovoltaic (PV) system with a 10 kWh battery that will enable them to switch seamlessly from the Stellenbosch municipal grid when the lights go out. Ikaya Primary will soon be able to bank almost R50 000 in yearly energy savings through this system.GreenX Engineering was cofounded in early 2021 by Dr Jason Samuels, and Stellenbosch University Engineering professors, Prof Thinus Booysen, and Prof Sara Grobbelaar as an energy efficiency company that helps clients improve their energy efficiency and environmental impact. South Africa’s the energy sector alone is responsible for almost 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the country, with SA ranking 12th in the world’s top emitters, and with 80 percent of the country’s electricity production being derived from coal.
Samuels said more energy management and energy efficiency projects are in the pipeline for GreenX. The company is speaking to lower-income public schools and groups of private schools. They also have plans to expand to the Free-state and KwaZulu-Natal regions.
For more information about GreenX Engineering visit: https://gxe.co.za/
