The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) is still in negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power for a planned 2,250MW independent power project (IPP).

According to sources close to the scheme, the client and the developer are still in negotiations and the power purchase agreement (PPA) could be signed within three months.

The planned 2,250MW IPP has faced a number of delays since Acwa Power submitted the only bid through a competitive tender in March 2015.

MEED reported in May last year that EEHC had moved the location of the planned IPP from Dairut to a location in Luxor.

Although the location was switched, Egypt’s EHHC has continued negotiations with the consortium of Acwa Power and the local Hassan Allam Construction to develop the IPP.

The combined-cycle scheme is regarded as a key project for Egypt’s development, representing the largest IPP tendered to date and also the first one in the market since the late 1990s.

Three build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) IPPs started up in the early 2000s, each comprising two steam turbine units of about 340MW. The first was undertaken by Intergen, a developer then affiliated with the US’ Bechtel, and Italy’s Edison at Sidi Krier, east of Alexandria. Two more followed, in Suez and East Port Said, carried out by France’s EDF International.

Plans for an IPP at Dairut were first launched in 2009, when EEHC issued a tender for a build-own-operate (BOO) combined-cycle plant at Dairut.

EEHC received 19 applications for the prequalification phase, one of which was approved. By the time of the revolution in January 2011, the government had yet to conclude agreements with legal and financial advisers, and there was no progress with the scheme until early 2013.