Egypt’s Electricity & Energy Ministry has prequalified 10 companies to bid to build an independent power project (IPP) at Dairut in the Asyut governorate.

The following bids/groups have been prequalified to bid on the contract:

• Sumitomo Corporation (Japan)
• Enka (Turkey)
• EDF International (France)
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia) and Hassan Allam Holding (local)
• Powertek (Malaysia)
• Tenaga Nasional (Malaysia)
• GMR (India) and El-Sewedy Dairut Power (local)
• GDF Suez (France), OCI (local) and Sojitz (Japan)
• Mitsui (Japan)
• Marubeni Corporation (Japan)

The following companies responded to the request for qualification, but were not selected:

• International Power (UK) and Benchmark Power International (local)
• General Electric (US)
• AES Corporation (US)
• Siemens Project Venture (Germany)
• Cobra (Spain) and AAW (local)
• SNC-Lavalin (Canada)
• Kepco (South Korea)
• American China Egypt Power Group
• Power Engineers Contracting (US), Engineering Kinetics (Pakistan), Evonik Energy Services (Germany) and Indeco (UK)

Proposals are expected to be submitted by September and an award is scheduled fo November.

The combined-cycle power plant will be developed at Dairut on a build-own-operate basis. The plant is likely to have capacity of 1,500MW, consisting of two 750MW units.

Developers, however, can propose a different configuration using three 750MW units, which would take capacity of the project to 2,250MW.

The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) will buy the output of the plant for 20 years under a power-purchase agreement.