Southern Farms was the first purpose-designed table grape farm on the Orange River in the Northern Cape. They have established themselves as a leader in the production of table grapes and, more recently, as one of the largest producers of Medjool and Zamil dates in the Southern Hemisphere.
As the business continues to expand, the security of reliable electricity for its complex operations, from irrigation to fruit processing, has become a priority.
Working closely with the management team, Broadreach has delivered an integrated renewable energy solution designed to reduce the farm’s operating costs and carbon footprint while, crucially, ensuring uninterrupted power during load shedding.
The hybrid system combines rooftop and ground-mounted solar panels with string inverters and diesel generators, while remaining connected to the Eskom grid. The current system has a capacity of 518kWp and is designed to scale as the business grows.
Innovations towards power resilience
Broadreach is also assisting Southern Farms with a load management programme to make the farm load shedding-free. By taking control of the power network, electrical loads across different parts of the farm can be managed more efficiently, allowing backup power to be shared where it is needed most. Southern Farms has also played an instrumental role in an initiative to help Eskom implement the programme across many other farms in the region.