The City is proud to receive 22 additional Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for 22 of its municipal buildings across the metro, including its Observatory Metro Police Academy. In September 2021, the City became the first municipality in South Africa to receive EPCs for three of its municipal buildings. The City is leading by example to take climate action in its buildings and we challenge all property owners to take stock of their building efficiency and join the movement to make Cape Town more resilient.

This year, the City received 22 additional Energy Performance Certificates from the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), bringing the City’s total number of EPCs to 25. A Performance Certificate is an indication of the amount of energy used in a building in kilowatt hour per square meter per year (kWh/m2/annum). It is then measured against a nationally regulated benchmark. This allows building owners to not only know how much energy their building uses, but also to compare this performance against other buildings of a similar type. There is much potential for change in the built environment to tackle climate change and to make cities more sustainable.

In December 2021, the National Government gazetted regulations for all government buildings over 1 000 m2 and all privately owned buildings above 2000 m2 in size within specific occupancy classes to publicity display an EPC within two years. Since then, the City introduced its EPC compliance Initiative that ensured the implementation of these regulations, while using the opportunity to bolster the City’s building energy data collection systems through the state-of-the-art SmartFacility® platform.

‘Last year, the City became the very first municipality in the country to receive Energy Performance Certificates for its municipal facilities and we have made great strides in complying with the regulations.

‘We are leading by example and this is a testament to the City’s commitment to reducing its energy usage and to addressing climate change. Climate action is a team effort and we call on other property owners to collect their own energy data and to see what opportunities there are for greater efficiency.

‘Our EPC compliance initiative is one of the City’s important steps towards achieving the Net Zero Carbon Municipal Buildings Target by 2030 and the broader city-wide ambition to be Carbon Neutral by 2050. The Observatory Metro Academy showcases how our targets can be achieved – the building is highly energy efficient and received a B-grading, performing 200% better than the national benchmark,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.

The 22 City buildings that have received energy performance certificates are:

• 50 Wale Street municipal building

• Bloemhof Electricity Headquarters

• Brackenfell Municipal building

• Brackenfell Training Centre

• Durbanville Municipal building

• Fezeka Municipal building

• Goodwood Municipal building

• Hillstar Traffic Building

• Keller House municipal building

• Khayelitsha Training Centre

• Kraaifontein Administrative Complex

• Milnerton Municipal Administrative building

• Ndabeni Fleet Admin building

• Ndabeni Fleet Workshops

• Observatory Metro Police Academy

• Parow Municipal building

• Pinelands Municipal building

• Plumstead Municipal building

• Royal Ascot municipal building

• Somerset West Municipal building

• Spyker Street Electricity depot

• Strand Municipal Administrative building

Source: City Of Cape Town