Sisi to inaugurate national megaprojects Tuesday

CAIRO – 23 July 2018: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker will inaugurate Tuesday several national megaprojects in the electricity sector, according to presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady.

The projects include three giant power plants carried out by the German company, Siemens,in the New Administrative Capital, Beni Suef, and Burullus with a total capacity of 14400 megawatts, or about 50 percent of the electricity grid, in addition to the world’s biggest Jabal al-Zeit wind station.

Three years ago, Egypt was going through an economic turmoil affected by a recession in the tourism and investment sectors, which are the main sources of foreign currency.

The ailing economic condition prompted then-new President Sisi to think of new sources of revenue to help reducethe growing budget deficit, which recorded 12 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2013\2014.

Sisi launched a number of national projects of which some has started operating, while the others are underway.

At the eventful Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015, major international companies and financial institutions pledged support for Egypt, including Germany’s Siemens, which later signed an €8 billion contract to build three 4,800MW combined cycle gas-fired plants in Egypt, each with eight units.

The projects, located in Ain Sokhna, Burullus and the New Administrative Capital, are being implemented on an EPC + Finance basis.

Elsewedy is the main contractor of the Beni Suef power plant, while Orascom is working on the Burullus and New Capital projects.