Egypt’s Electricity & Energy Ministry is preparing to appoint the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as financial adviser on its independent power project (IPP) at Dairut in the Asyut governorate.

The combined-cycle power plant will be developed at Dairut on a build-own-operate basis

The ministry prequalified 10 groups to bid on the contract to develop the plant in June. The prequalifiers are:

• Sumitomo Corporation (Japan)
• Enka (Turkey)
• EDF International (France)
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia) and Hassan Allam Holding (local)
• Powertek (Malaysia)
• Tenaga Nasional (Malaysia)
• GMR (India) and El-Sewedy Dairut Power (local)
• GDF Suez (France), OCI (local) and Sojitz (Japan)
• Mitsui (Japan)
• Marubeni Corporation (Japan)

The ministry was then expected to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by late August, but this was pushed back to after Ramadan. A source close to the project has indicated that the RFP will be issued once legal and technical advisers have been appointed.

The combined-cycle power plant will be developed at Dairut on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis. The plant is likely to have capacity of 1,500MW, consisting of two 750MW units.

Developers, however, can propose a different configuration using three 750MW units, which would take capacity of the project to 2,250MW.

The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) will buy the output of the plant for 20 years under a power-purchase agreement.