Egypt’s East Delta Electricity Production Company (EDEPC) has issued tenders for mechanical equipment and pipe installation at its West Damietta and Al-Shabab power plants.

The deadline for the submission of bids is 22 January.

The contracts are part of the programme to convert the plants from simple-cycle gas turbines to combined-cycle.

The Al-Shabab plant conversion deal is being funded by European Investment Bank, which is providing €205m ($255m) of financing for the scheme.

The West Damietta contract is being funded by part of Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank’s $201m financing of the project.

Bids for heat recovery steam generators at the Al-Shabab plant were received in October. The expansion will increase the plant’s capacity from 1,000MW to 1,500MW.

The 750MW capacity of the West Damietta facility will also be hiked up by 500MW.

EDEPC is expected to award civil works and turbine packages in early 2015. Both plants are scheduled to be commissioned in early 2017.

Egypt is facing serious power shortfalls, and experienced power cuts over the winter of 2014 to date. Projections show that with peak demand rising at 5 per cent a year, the country needs to install 1,500MW a year of capacity to keep pace, so Cairo is moving ahead with multiple power projects.