Egypt’s Sisi to inaugurate Siemens power plants next Tuesday

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will inaugurate next Tuesday three power plants with a capacity of built by Germany’s Siemens with a combined full capacity of 14,400 megawatts.

All three stations are currently around 97 percent complete and will be fully operational with a combined production output of 14,400 megawatts by the time of the inauguration.

Egypt signed an 8 billion-euro ($9.3 billion) deal with Siemens in June 2015 that calls for three combined-cycle power plants with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts each, plus 12 wind farms, and is designed to boost the country’s electricity generation by 50 percent.

The German company agreed to build up to 12 wind farms in the Gulf of Suez and West Nile regions. About 600 turbines will be erected, with an installed capacity of 2 gegawatts. It also agreed to build a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Ain Sukhna, about 120 kilometres east of Cairo.

Two of the power plants are located in the country’s new capital and Burullus Plants, both will be the largest gas-fired combined cycle power plants in the world.

Egypt is looking to expend electricity production after acute shortages in the years immediately following its 2011 uprising led to frequent summer blackouts and cuts to industrial production.