By Mohamed Farag
The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) requested EGP 350m from 39 renewable energy companies qualified to implement solar energy projects according to the feed-in tariff, to be paid next week.
The payment is part of the cost of linking the plants to the national grid.
Sources at the Ministry of Electricity revealed that each company acquired a land parcel to establish solar power plants in Benban, Aswan to pay 30% of the cost to link them to the grid, which is EGP 27m for each company. The companies will pay EGP 530,000 per MW and 12.5% of additional expenses.
The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) previously signed 39 MoUs with investors to allocate lands to establish solar power plants in Benban. Investors include Scatec Solar, Fas Energy, Philadelphia Energy, Orascom, TBK Energy, Lekela Power Egypt, Gestmap Energy, Axis Building, and First Solar companies.
Sources said the Ministry of Electricity will sign a contract with XD Egemac Company next week, which will include establishing four transformer stations in Benban after the company won the ministry’s tender offered in October.
The implementation cost of the four plants amounts to approximately EGP 640m, while the down payment to XD Egemac will be paid through funds allocated by the state for new and renewable energy projects, amounting to EGP 2bn.
According to the contract with XD Egemac, four 2,000 MV transformer plants will be established to transfer energy produced from solar plants in Aswan with the capacity of 2,000 MW. The plants’ implementation will take around eight months.
In September 2014, the Ministry of Electricity announced the feed-in tariff value for new and renewable energy. A total of 187 companies and alliances presented their offers to the ministry, 136 of which were qualified to establish solar and wind power plants with a capacity of 4,300 MW, of which 2,300 MW is from solar power and 2,000 MW wind power.
