Delivering energy independence to a national fuel distribution and retail network
Shiptech Petroleum is a proudly South African petroleum company with a national footprint of fuel depots and retail forecourt sites across the country. Since its incorporation in 2007, Shiptech has built a reputation as a reliable and innovative partner in the fuel supply chain, servicing customers from commercial transport operators to mining and minerals processing businesses. With 12 depots operational across South Africa, Shiptech's infrastructure represents a significant and growing national asset — one that is entirely dependent on reliable, uninterrupted electrical power.
The Challenge: Fuel forecourts and petroleum distribution facilities have an absolute requirement for continuous power. Fuel pumps, point-of-sale systems, forecourt lighting, refrigeration in convenience stores, electronic payment terminals, and security and surveillance systems must all operate without interruption. For Shiptech, each power outage represented not only lost revenue from pump downtime, but also a direct risk to equipment integrity — particularly the sensitive electronics and control systems that govern modern fuel dispensing infrastructure. The progressive increase in electricity tariffs was simultaneously eroding site-level profitability, while the cost of running diesel generators as a backup measure was itself adding to the operational burden.
Load shedding, now a structural feature of South Africa's electricity supply landscape, presented Shiptech with a compounding challenge: not only were outages becoming more frequent and prolonged, but the generators required to mitigate them demanded significant capital expenditure, ongoing fuel procurement, and regular maintenance — all while contributing to operating costs rather than reducing them.
The Solution: SolarEPC partnered with Shiptech to deliver a solar PV and backup energy solution across multiple sites in the network. By deploying rooftop solar generation at each site, combined with intelligent inverter and energy management systems, SolarEPC significantly reduced Shiptech's dependency on Eskom during daylight hours — directly lowering the energy component of each site's operational cost. The system design ensures that all critical loads, including fuel pumps, convenience store equipment, and security infrastructure, receive clean, stable power at all times, eliminating the voltage fluctuations associated with generator switching that previously caused damage to sensitive electronic equipment.
The investment in renewable energy infrastructure has enabled Shiptech to protect its operational continuity, reduce its exposure to escalating grid tariffs, and eliminate a material source of equipment degradation — all while reinforcing its brand positioning as an innovative and forward-thinking operator in the South African petroleum sector.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
-
Sector: Petroleum & Retail
-
Solar PV: Vryheid – 50 kWp | Ballito 53 kWp | Bhambanana 32 kWp – Aggregate 135 kWp
-
Sites: Vryheid |Ballito | Bhambanana
-
Critical Loads: Pumps, POS, refrigeration, security