The German company Siemens is beginning the commercial operation of four electricity production units in Borollos and Beni Suef plants with a 1,600 MW capacity.
Sources in the Ministry of Electricity said the capacities will be connected to the national grid, within 10 days, after operation tests. The required gas was delivered to the Beni Suef plant.
Operation tests on the electricity plant in the New Administrative Capital were carried out after providing electricity to El Tebben and Ain Sokhna plants with a 500 KV capacity, to begin actual production within 20 days.
The sources added that according to the meeting between the Electricity Ministry and Siemens, about 4,000 MW will be added to the electricity grid from Beni Suef and Borollos plants by the end of next month, whereas 800 MW will be added from the administrative capital plant during the first month of January.
Beni Suef plant obtains 12m cubic metres of gas per day for six production units, with a total capacity of 2,400 MW. About 6m cubic metres of gas per day are provided to three production units in the New Administrative Capital with a capacity of 1,200 MW, and the Borollos plant obtains 6m cubic metres of gas per day for three production units of 1,200 MW capacity.
Siemens is establishing the three electricity production units in Beni Suef, Borollos, and the New Administrative Capital according to the combined cycle system where the exhaust gas from energy production is reused.
Contracting on the three plants costs €6bn, but there is another cost—the value of the land on which projects are implemented.
The Electricity Ministry has paid about €2.1bn for its construction works, turbines supply, and the equipment for the three plants.
Three banks are funding Siemens’s three projects with €4.1bn, out of the total €6bn, including the KfW Development Bank, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC. Arab banks are financing the projects in Egyptian pounds to pay the dues of the Egyptian companies on the project, including Elsewedy and Orascom.
