South African tech giant coming after Eskom

A subsidiary of Blu Label Unlimited has been granted a licence to compete with Eskom in South Africa’s slowly opening electricity market.

On Tuesday, 17 February, Blu Label announced that its subsidiary, BluEnergy Trading, had been granted a multi-year energy trading license by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).

This license will allow BluEnergy to actively participate in South Africa’s electricity market by buying and selling power.

“This marks a significant regulatory milestone that empowers BluEnergy to deliver innovative renewable energy solutions across the energy value chain by connecting municipalities, IPPs and energy users,” the company said.

Blu Label explained that this approval allows BluEnergy to play a central role in South Africa’s power sector reform agenda, which aims to increase private sector participation, enhance energy security and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

This comes as the government is implementing reforms to open up South Africa’s electricity sector and allow private market players to compete on equal footing with state-owned Eskom.

“This licence is a critical enabler of BluEnergy’s strategy,” CEO Aaron Suckerman said. “By combining long-term power purchase agreements with proven prepaid revenue collection and settlement infrastructure, we are removing the barriers to entry and providing municipalities with a secure, long-term solution for their energy needs.”

Currently, BluEnergy has a partnership with Cigicell, a provider of prepaid electricity vending and revenue assurance systems embedded in more than 95 municipalities across 9 provinces.

BluEnergy operates through three specialised entities spanning project development – asset ownership, operations and maintenance and energy procurement and trading. 

“This robustly integrated approach enables BluEnergy to manage the technical and commercial aspects of energy delivery, grid integration, wheeling frameworks and contractual performance,” the company explained.

“The model is designed to support localised generation and efficient energy flows, offering end-to-end solutions for municipalities and energy users.”

Blu Label co-CEO and founder, Mark Levy, said BluEnergy’s ability to act as both offtaker and trader is supported by Blu Label’s strong balance sheet and fintech capabilities.

These factors, he said, position the business to deliver sustainable energy solutions at scale while contributing meaningfully to national energy transition and decarbonisation.

“With regulatory approval now secured, BluEnergy will focus on aggressively building out its project pipeline, operationalising trading activities in line with its mandate to support South Africa’s transition to a more resilient, decentralised and sustainable power system,” the company said.