Promotion of Egypt’s energy sector
As a result of rising demand, inadequate generation and transmission capacity coupled with aging and insufficient investments in energy infrastructure, Egypt suffered from an acute shortage of power between 2014 and 2018. Daily 10-hour blackouts were common at the peak of the crisis in the summer of 2013, and in 2014 and 2015, power was cut to heavy industry, reducing Egypt’s private sector competitiveness.
In 2015, the Egyptian Government introduced an emergency plan to double power generation capacity by 2020. ICIEC has underwritten the construction of gas power plants in Assiut, West Damietta Port Said, Hurgada and Sharm El Sheikh with a totaled installed capacity of 2,672MW. This served to stabilize the power grid and secure the base load. By providing stable electricity supplies to large industries with high voltage electricity needs, this investment will increase Egypt’s competitiveness.
The government’s energy plan calls for Egypt to produce at least 20% of its energy from renewables by 2022 and as much as 40% by 2035 up from 3%. The Benban Solar Complex, a 1.8GW project, consists of 30 separate solar plants being developed by different companies at a total cost of USD 4 billion and will generate enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. ICIEC provided cover for Alcazar Energy which has constructed 4-50MW solar plants. The project is part of Egypt’s Nubian Suns Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (FiT) program announced in September 2014, which is in line with the Egyptian government’s Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035.