New power plants in Egypt to save $800mn annually in 3Yrs – minister

Egypt will save around 13 billion Egyptian pounds ($804 million) in energy consumption annually from three power plants co-built by Siemens in three years, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said.

The three 6.62 billion state-owned plants, which were inaugurated in mid-2018, saved the country 7.3 billion pounds ($451 million) in the 2018/2019 fiscal year which ended on 30 June, the minister said in live TV comments on Tuesday.

The figure is expected to reach 12.8 billion pounds annually in 2022 and up to 16 billion pounds when they operate at full capacity, which means retrieving the project cost in 5-7 years, the minister added during an inauguration ceremony of a number of projects.

Egypt is considering offers from foreign companies to take over the three 14.4 gigawatts facilities, with the country’s new sovereign wealth fund planning to acquire a stake of about 30 percent and international investors holding the rest.

Egypt has spent billions of pounds to develop its electricity network as the country aims to be a major international hub for electricity transmission and power trade.

Egypt has signed a deal with Cyprus and Greece to link the electricity grids of the three countries with the rest of Europe. It is working on linking its power grid with Sudan and is planning carry out similar projects with Saudi Arabia an Jordan.

Source: Ahram online