Haifa on the Road to an Energy Revolution: The Economic Society Establishes the "Haifa Electricity Company"

With an investment of hundreds of millions of shekels, a new energy arm will be established that will make electricity cheaper for businesses and lead to energy independence.

The Haifa Economic Company is embarking on one of the biggest strategic moves in its history – establishing an energy arm that will operate as a kind of "local electricity company," and will invest hundreds of millions of shekels in energy projects throughout the city in the coming years.

The new arm, which will be one of the company's four strategic execution arms, will be based on a variety of energy sources: solar energy, storage facilities, natural gas, electric vehicle charging stations, and energy production from waste.

The first project: The project, which is expected to be launched soon, is in the field of energy storage, and will be based on battery installations that will be charged during low-price periods, and will enable the sale of discounted electricity to Haifa businesses during peak hours. These installations are intended for high-consumption entities such as hospitals and water facilities – and are expected to save hundreds of thousands of shekels a year.

Among the future initiatives: a facility for producing energy from municipal waste, which will save the municipality about NIS 10 million per year. The city's residents are also expected to benefit from the move: in the future, the possibility of selling discounted electricity to private homes is planned.

CEO of the Haifa Economic Company, Hanan Markowitz:
"Energy is a strategic consideration for Haifa. Our goal is to produce, store and sell discounted electricity, to incentivize businesses and reduce costs. In the future, we will also offer this to residents. We are building a technological-economic mechanism that will promote energy independence and allow Haifa to be prepared for emergencies."

Chairman of the Economic Society, Rani Bender:
"We are creating new growth engines that have not existed in Haifa before - with a double benefit: both profit for the company and significant savings for businesses and residents."

At the last city council meeting, municipality CEO Gadi Margalit announced that the economic company will lead the municipal energy sector, in accordance with Mayor Yona Yahav's policy.