Egypt is set to boost its power by capacity by 6GW in 2015, the country’s Electricity Ministry said on the sidelines of the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC).

Speaking at a roundtable on 13 March in Sharm el-Sheikh, Electricity Ministry Mohamed Shaker said that the accelerated programme would result in an additional 6GW coming online before the end of the year.

The additional 6GW will be a mixture of contracts to upgrade and expand existing power plants, and the completion of new power plants currently under construction. When commissioned, the additional capacity will bring Egypt’s total installed capacity to 38GW.

“Next summer, we aim to have no power cuts at all,” said Shaker. “Because we have suffered from power shortages in recent years.”

About 3.7GW of the additional capacity will come from its accelerated power capacity building programme, which it began in late 2014.

The minister said that contracts for 3.7GW, worth about $2.5bn, had been awarded, since December and that the capacity would be installed by the summer this year.

“We started the process in October, and awarded the first contract in December,” said Shaker.

The US’ GE has been awarded contracts to install 2.7GW of the 3.7GW of new capacity under the accelerated programme. Germany’s Siemens and Italy’s Ansaldo were awarded the remaining contracts.