Egypt Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) has selected the consortium of China’s Shanghai Electric, dong Fang and the local Hassan Allam Construction as the preferred bidder for a contract worth $4.4bn to build the 6GW Hamrawein coal plant.

The consortium will now proceed with final negotiations for the contract and financing for the 6GW plant, which will be the largest single site power project in the region. The project will be developed under an  engineering, procurement and construction plus finance (EPC+F) model.

MEED reported in February that the client had received technical and commercial proposals from three consortiums for the proposed project.

Commercial proposals contained an EPC offer and a levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) tariff.

A consortium comprising China’s Shanghai Electric, China’s Dong Fang and the local Hassan Allam Construction submitted the lowest EPC price of $4.4bn, with US giant GE submitting an offer of $5.8bn and a consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Hitachi Power System (MHPS) and local firms Orascom Construction and El-Sewedy submitting an EPC proposal of $7bn.

However, for the LCOE, the MHPS-led consortium submitted the lowest figure of $cents4.5 per kWh ($c/kWh). The Shanghai Electric-led consortium submitted a LCOE offering of 5.4$c/kWh, with GE submitting a tariff of 7$c/kWh.

The scheme is one of a handful of major coal projects that Egypt is seeking to develop in the coming years to meet the growing demand for electricity while diversifying fuel sources used for power generation.

MEED reported earlier in 2018 that EEHC was continuing negotiations with the UAE’s Al-Nowais Investments, through its subsidiary AMEA Power, for a planned coal-fired independent power project (IPP) at Ayoun Moussa.

The project, scheduled to have a first phase capacity of 2,640MW, has been under negotiation since 2015, when Al-Nowais signed initial agreements.