Electricity min.: LE4.6B cost of implementing 4 power control centers

CAIRO - 14 July 2020: Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said Tuesday that the total cost of implementing four power control centers in the electricity distribution networks is estimated at nearly LE 4.6 billion.

The minister had a meeting with Schneider Electric's Regional Cluster Head of North East Africa and Levant Eng. Walid Sheta and the company's Deputy CEO, Sherif Abdel Fattah, on the sidelines of the signing of the agreement to start building the first four Energy Control Centers (ECCs) for Egypt’s electricity grid within a period of 18 months.

Shaker said that the deal came in line with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s directives to give priority to raising the efficiency of electricity transmission and distribution networks nationwide, raising the performance level, improving the quality of electrical nutrition and maximizing the benefit from information technology applications and smart systems using "Grid Ecostruxure." 

The four ECCs will be built in Nasr city, New Cairo, Dokki and 6th of October city, Shaker noted, explaining that the electricity distribution networks in these areas are much-more ready and suitable for establishing the power control centers.

A best-laid plan was drawn up to establish and develop 47 control centers in the electricity distribution networks distributed among the electricity distribution companies so that they cover all parts of the country, at an initial cost of about 2 billion euros, Shaker said.

For his part , Sheta said that Schneider Electric as an international company is keen on boosting cooperation with the Egyptian government and invest in national projects in Egypt.

He also cited his company's cooperation with the Electricity and Renewable Energy Ministry to develop the national power grid, maximize the utilization of human capabilities and localize the industry in Egypt.

During the meeting, Abdel Fattah lauded Egypt's keenness on possessing a smart network that could meet its needs to help implement the growth plans, particularly with the increase in power consumption and in light of the processes of economic growth to achieve the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS): Egypt Vision 2030. 

"Grid Ecostruxure" an advanced distribution management system, equips utilities with critical grid management capabilities to improve outage response, optimize evolving grid operation, and manage distributed energy resource (DER) impacts.