Egypt Needs An Energy Mix With Various Sources

A balanced energy mix is one of the most significant needs for Egypt, where both fossil and renewable energy sources are included.

“It’s dangerous that 90% of electricity come from oil and gas fuel,” said First Under-secretary of Ministry of Electricity to Develop Performance and Political communication, Sabah Meshaly, during the last session of the “Energy and Future of Investment in Egypt” conference.

The first step in the ministry’s strategy is to use clean coal in producing electricity through allocating lands for plants on the north coast to avoid transporting the coal to Cairo, Meshaly noted.

She added that 42% of electrical energy is spent in domestic use, while 35% goes to industrial use, which demands that people rationalise electricity consumption in their homes.

Three new electricity units started operating Monday at a 1,000 MW capacity in Assiut, according to Chairman of Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company Ahmed Al-Hanafy. He added that the company is working on transmitting electricity to the 1m acre reclamation project in Minya.

“Egypt transfers electricity to Jordan and Libya, and we will link transmission lines to Saudi Arabia […], to benefit from the surplus of electricity,” Al-Hanafy noted.

Meanwhile, deals with seven companies have been made to provide 13m LED lamps to the government to distribute all over the country, according to Managing Director of the Electricity Holding Company, Mohamed Rahim.

About 3.6m LED lamps has been already distributed to citizens, or four lamps per home with facilitated payments. An LED lamp can operate for four years or 25,000 hours, saving more energy than ordinary lamps, Rahim added.

As for street lamps, the company is working on transforming its energy to high pressure sodium, saving a total of 600 MW in energy capacity. This project has already started in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria, according to Rahim.

Source: Daily News Egypt