The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) has awarded the US’ GE a contract worth about $250m to provide advanced grid solutions technologies to substations located in Mostathmereen, Beni Suef Industrial, Ismailia East and Temay Alemdeed.

The four gas-insulated substations (GIS) will help connect 7GW of power to the national grid, which is the equivalent to the electricity needs of more than 6.5 million Egyptian homes.

The contract is part of the Protocol of Cooperation signed during the French Presidential visit to Egypt. Eyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and French President François Hollande witnessed the signing, among other agreements between the two countries to further support Egypt’s economic, industrial and infrastructural development.

French components make up approximately 50 per cent of the total project scope, including the GIS technologies to be installed at the substations, which are manufactured and assembled in France. Last year, GE completed the acquisition of Alstom’s power business. 

The project is being executed by GE as part of a consortium with Egyptian contractor Rowad Modern Engineering. The project is expected to create approximately 50 permanent jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs for Egyptians during the construction and installation. The first phase, which includes the Mostathmereen substation, will be connected to the grid within six months. The remaining three substations will be completed by the end of 2017.

Another contract signing witnessed by the French and Egyptian presidents was the $1.2bn civil engineering contract for the third phase of Cairo Metro’s Line 3.

A consortium led by French firms Vinci Construction Grand Projects and the local subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, and which includes local contracting firms Orascom Construction and Arab Contracting, was selected for the contract earlier in April by the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT).