Ten Egyptian and regional banks have signed an E£10bn ($1.3bn) loan for three power plants in Egypt, according to local Amwal al-Ghad newspaper.

Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) will use the funds to finance a €6bn contract for engineering, procurement and construction of three gas-fired power plants at Beni Suef, Burullus and the New Capital.

The banks are the local National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Commercial International Bank (CIB), QNB Alahli, Arab African International Bank (AAIB), Bank Audi Egypt, AlexBank, Egyptian Gulf Bank, Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), Amwal al-Ghad reports.

The three power plants each have a capacity of 4.8GW, and are expected to begin operations in December 2016. Germany’s Siemens and local Orascom Construction and El-Sewedy Electric won a record contract to build the plants. 

The Ministry of Electricity & Renewable Energy and NBE signed the finance deal on behalf of EEHC and other banks.

EEHC also secured €4.1bn ($4.4bn) in financing from Deutsche Bank, the German subsidiary of UK-based HSBC, and German development bank KfW in November.

Siemens also agreed to deliver up to 12 wind farms in the Gulf of Suez and West Nile areas as the second part of the $9bn deal, signed in June. The wind projects will consist of 600 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 2GW.

MEED reported earlier in December that Egyptian banks would offer a €490m ($518m) guarantee for EEHC for the supply of machinery and equipment by Siemens, arranged by NBE, Bank Misr, CIB, AUB and Abu Dhabi’s Union National Bank.

Egypt is rushing to install 54GW of additional capacity by 2022. This is necessary to meet the increasing demand for electricity, rising by 6 per cent a year, and avoid the power cuts experienced in 2013 and 2014.