The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) is offering a tender next week for the establishment of four transformer stations at a value of €120m.
Gamal Abdel Rahim, head of the EETC, told Daily News Egypt that the tender includes stations in Eastern Sohag at 500KV voltage, Qena at 500KV voltage, Zagazig at 500KV, and Bilbeis at 220KV voltage.
This tender is included in the EETC’s plan to strengthen the national electricity grid to accommodate the additional capacities.
Abdel Rahim explained that the EETC agreed with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) on borrowing EGP 18bn to strengthen the national electricity grid. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will bear the interest on the loan, while EETC will be responsible for the repayment of the original value of the loan.
The company will sign a contract within 10 days, and it will be a long-term contract. The contract will be disbursed through two tranches to pay dues of companies that are implementing the new projects for the expansion and development of the transmission grid.
The repayment period of the loan extends over 15 years, including three grace years. Loans are to be allocated for the implementation of a comprehensive plan extending over 3 years.
During its last meeting headed by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, the cabinet approved to provide the two EEHC and EETC loans worth EGP 37bn. The Ministry of Electricity has received an official letter of approval last week.
The cabinet’s approval came as part of President Al-Sisi’s instructions and the importance of allocating necessary funding to improve the two networks of electricity transmission and distribution, as well as increase the network’s ability to accommodate new electricity capacities of more than 18,000MW until 2018.
Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker had revealed in previous statements the details of the plan to develop the two networks of electricity transmission and distribution to accommodate generating capacities from the plants in Borollos, the New Administrative Capital, Beni Suef, and south of Helwan through establishing modern electricity lines, supporting the existing lines, creating new transformer plants, or expanding the current lines.
Abdel Rahim explained that three transformer plants are under construction in the Beni Suef industrial city, Tami Amdid, and east of Ismailia with a capacity of 220–500KV. The construction will be completed early next year.
Three transformer plants with 220KV capacity are being constructed as well. They include investors’ transformer plants, Al Hadaba 2 transformer plant, and the Imbaba plant. They will be opened mid-2017 and were constructed using the thermal isolation technology, which is the latest technology currently being used.