The Sidi Krier power plant, Egypt’s first Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) electricity project, will start operation next month, Al-Ahram reported. Trial operation of units three and four of the 650-Megawatts (MW) gas-fired complex has already started and the station currently produces at its full capacity into the unified electricity grid.
The construction of the thermal power station, with two 325-megawatt (MW) generators supplied by Siemens KWU, cost $500 million. The 20-year BOOT for the Middle East’s largest private power generator was awarded to a partnership of InterGen of the US and Edison International of Italy.
The Electricity and Energy Ministry and the Egyptian Electricity Authority (EEA) started the power sector privatization ball rolling in 1996 with the decision to introduce Egypt's first independent power project (IPP) in Sidi Krier, west of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. The success of the Sidi Krier deal has allowed EEA to move much faster with the second and third IPPs, at Suez and East Port Said.
Egypt’s large population and rapid population growth translate into a demand for electricity, which is growing at 7.5 percent annually. Installed generating capacity is currently 16,600 MW, with an additional 2,500-3,000 MW planned by 2005, and then another 6,000 MW by 2010. Of this total, around 84 percent is thermal and the rest, hydroelectric, mostly from the Aswan High Dam. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
