Egypt to issue request for proposals for Dariut power project in June

02 February 2010

Prequalification submissions due by the end of March

The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) plans to issue a request for proposals for an independent power project (IPP) at Dariut in June.

EETC issued a request for prequalification for the project on 1 February, with developers due to submit their applications by 31 March. EETC will shortlist the companies before releasing the request for proposals.

The combined cycle power plant will comprise two 750MW blocks, but developers can propose to increase the number of blocks to three. Each block will include two gas turbines and one steam turbine, each with capacity of 250MW.

The plant will run on natural gas with light oil as backup. The project company will buy the feedstock from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) under a fuel supply agreement.

The winning developer will design, finance, construct, own and operate the plant and sell all of its output to EETC under a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The Dariut project is the second IPP announcement in Egypt in 2010.

Meanwhile, a Gulf developer has submitted a proposal for five IPPs with total capacity of 3,500MW to the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Central Unit, part of the Finance Ministry. The first of these will be a 750MW plant located at Banha.

Demand for power in Egypt has been growing at a steady rate of approximately 7 per cent a year over the past 10 years. It is expected to continue to increase by an annual average of 6 per cent in the coming 15 years.  

According to the request for prequalification for the Dariut plant, Egypt will need to add more than 50,000MW of capacity over the next 15 years to meet this demand.  

“EEHC has determined that the most appropriate approach to meet the need for additional generating capacity, consistent with a more market-based economy, is a combination of EEHC and private sector generation,” according to the document.

EEHC currently owns 91 per cent of the country’s 24,000MW of power generating capacity. Three private build-own-operate-transfer projects account for 8 per cent of installed capacity, while wind farms make up the remaining 1 per cent.

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