Egypt's 1,500-Megawatt Giza Project Part of Drive to 50,000 Megawatts by 2020

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The World Bank has signed a $240 million loan agreement with Egypt as part of a package to finance the third 500-megawatt (MW) stage of the 1,500-MW North Giza power plant in the Nile Delta region, northwest of Cairo.

The project received final approval in mid-2010, and this was followed by Egypt and the World Bank signing an agreement for the initial loan of $600 million. The European Investment Bank provided a loan of $340 million, and the OPEC Fund for International Development provided $30 million. Local funding supplied a further $380 million.The promoter and financial intermediary on the project is the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC).

The third stage of the North Giza plant will use natural gas as the main fuel with light diesel as the backup. The current loan covers the addition of two 250-MW units. These units are scheduled to be operational in simple-cycle mode in May 2014 and in combined-cycle mode in early 2015.

Egypt's state-owned electricity and natural gas corporations will implement the project, which will feed power to the national grid. The power will be supplied to more than 5 million households in the Giza governate.

Egypt is aiming to have 50,000 MW of installed power generation capacity by 2020. Currently, available energy is growing at a rate of 6-7% annually. Renewable energy sources are targeted for 20% of the mix, which means adding an average of 600 MW annually through 2020.

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