The Ministry of Electricity will offer competitive tenders for the implementation of new and renewable power plants in the first quarter of next year.
The Minister of Electricity, Mohamed Shaker, said that all renewable energy projects in the coming period will be through competitive tenders, adding that the offering will come in two stages after confirming the technical and financial competence of the companies, and contracting with the lowest financial price and the best technology offered.
He explained that a committee formed by the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) is currently preparing the total capacity of the projects to be put forward, which will be calculated based on the target capacities in the 2020 strategy, which aims to produce 20% of energy from renewable sources.
He pointed out that the Ministry of Electricity did not succeed by 100% in the first phase of the feed-in tariff projects, but has evaded the mistakes in the second phase. He noted that the total energy amount to 1,565 MW from both phases.
Moreover, Shaker said that the launch of the feed-in tariff projects will give a strong push to nutrition tariff projects, which contribute to the implementation of the private sector will give a strong impetus to achieve the objectives of the sector to promote the participation of new and renewable energies in the Egyptian energy mix and achieve the objectives adopted by the strategy of sustainable energy 2035.
They will also contributes to the provision of many direct and indirect employment opportunities, enhancing local component participation in renewable energy equipment, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Shaker said that despite the gradual removal of the subsidies on electricity, there will be exchange subsidies from consumers who consume lots of energy to the needier classes in order to reduce the pressure on the state.
He explained that adding capacities from renewable energy plants to the electricity grid will contribute to improving the kilowatt/hour tariff for consumers, especially that the kilowatt obtained by consumers mainly depends on fuel. If new capacities were added from renewable sources, the price of the kilowatt/hour will be reasonable.
He stressed that the Ministry of Electricity seeks to improve the quality of electricity feed-in and providing electricity without outages even in areas with poor capacities. He said that the ministry has put a plan to be implemented with investments worth EGP 40bn.
He added that the Ministry of Electricity has taken proactive steps and put forward a plan that suits the increase in national income consumption, and it will be utilizing the added capacities to increase the exchange capacities with Jordan up to 2000mw.
Egypt is also close to signing a contract with Saudi Arabia for the electricity connection project between the two countries which allows the exchange of 3,000 mw. “We are in the final phases of the signing,” said Shaker.
Shaker added that signing the contracts of El Dabaa will take place before the end of this year. “We have finished all the details of the contracts, and will be announcing the signing soon,” he noted.
