General Electric (GE) company asked the Electricity Ministry to pay $148m in return for the overhauls and maintenance operations the company carried out on production plants over the past six months.
GE overhauled the electricity generation units over the last 6 months, a prominent official at the Ministry of Electricity said. These operations included many production plants in Ataqa, El-Mahmudeya El-Nubareya, North Delta, and other production units.
The company conducted major, regular and simple overhauls, the official added. The kind of overhaul is decided on according to the condition of the production unit and the turbine; the overhaul is considered ‘major’ if the plant works for 36,000 hours, ‘regular’ if it works for 24,000 hours, and ‘simple’ if it works for about 8,000 hours.
Overhauling electricity production units increases their efficiency and technical condition. Oil, grease, pipes, and cables are changed in the generation units and the turbines.
The ministry has developed a plan to implement replacement, renovation, and maintenance operations for the plants to save fuel and raise their efficiency, instead of building new plants, which are costly for the state, the official said. Work to use modern technology in the plants and convert them to work through the combined cycle system is underway in order to reduce fuel consumption.
The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy is almost done with its preparations for summer 2016 as a government programme for the maintenance of plants is scheduled to be completed this month.
In 2015, the sector managed to overcome the crisis of the power outage, said Mohamed El-Youmani, the first undersecretary of the Electricity Ministry. An urgent ambitious plan was initiated by adding about 6,882 MW, including nearly 3,632 MW in an urgent five-year plan. Moreover, the implementation of the electricity production will be completed with 3,250 MW produced by the power plants.
El-Youmani added that the ministry began its preparations for summer very early in order to increase the efficiency of the power production plants and add new electricity capacities, as well as develop the electricity transfer network to unload the capacities expected to be added to the projects, with the goal of developing and enhancing power efficiency.
He explained that the electricity transfer network was developed through transformers and lines of ultra-high voltage towers, 1,210km in length, with EGP 12bn in investments over the period between summer 2015 and summer 2016.
El-Youmani went on to explain: “We continue to play our societal role through the distribution of LED lamps to citizens. These lamps save 90% of energy compared to incandescent lamps. So far, about 8m lamps have been distributed.”
Citizens can obtain 20 LED lamps from companies by paying zero-interest instalments over 36 months. Citizens can visit the nearest electricity management body and receive their lamps immediately by providing their ID and electricity bills.
