EGYPT - The Energy Base - The Power Sector.

Egypt has an installed power generating capacity of over 17.5 gigawatts (GW), with plans to add 9.3 GW gas-fired by 2010. About 84% of the capacity is thermal, mainly consisting of gas turbines, with the remaining 16% being hydroelectric mostly from the Aswan High Dam. All oil-fired plants have been converted to run on gas in a programme completed in 2000. With demand growing 6-7% annually, Egypt is building several plants and is to have a limited privatisation of the power sector.

The power sector consists of seven regional state-owned production and distribution companies, which were held by the Egyptian Electricity Authority (EEA). In July 2000, the EEA was converted into a holding company, though still owned by the state. Current reform plans call for the separation of generation, transmission, and distribution. Distribution will be privatised. The Egyptian Electric Holding Co. (EEHC) will keep having the transmission lines and power generation. New power generation will come mostly from privately funded projects, which will sell their output to EEHC under long-term contracts.

EEHC, under the Energy Ministry, is to add generating capacity by direct investment and through build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) schemes. BOOT projects fund large-scale public infrastructure without affecting Egypt's debt profile. Independent power producers (IPPs) recover their costs through ownership and operation of the plant for a fixed period before handing it over to the state. The first BOOT project was a gas-fired steam plant with two 325-MW generating units, located at Sidi Kerir, 30 km west of Alexandria, completed in September 2000. The power is sold at 2.54 cents per Kwh. The competitive price stems largely from cheap gas supplied by Gasco. InterGen (a JV of Bechtel and Shell Generating, along with local partners Kato Investment and First Arabian Development and Investment), has the 20-year BOOT contract for Sidi Kerir. The second BOOT project went to Electricite de France (EdF) for two 680 MW gas-fired plants located near the north and south ends of the Suez Canal and in operation since in 2003. The price of power from the EdF plants is 2.4 cents per Kwh, the lowest yet offered for an IPP.

Projects under execution include two 750 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units at Nubariya in the western Nile Delta between Cairo and Alexandria, a 750-MW addition to the Cairo North power complex, and smaller hydroelectric stations at Nag Hammadi and Asyut. EEHC is having a part-solar power plant at Kureimat which will have 30 MW of solar out of a total capacity of 150 MW. EEHC is having a 750 MW plant built in Talkha and a 750 MW station to be built in Kureimat. EEHC is also to rehabilitate some of the 12,175 MW hydroelectric turbines at the Aswan High Dam built in the 1960s by the Soviets.

On March 14, 2001, President Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al Assad and King Abdullah of Jordan inaugurated a $300m power line linking the grids of the three countries. A $239m link with Jordan was completed in October 1998 and was the first phase of interconnection of Egypt's system with those of Jordan, Syria, and Turkey. Egypt activated a link to Libya's grid in December 1999. Other interconnections with Egypt's network are being studied, including an Arab East interconnection, as well as one with the GCC (see Vol. 58).