The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy managed to provide power supplies for all sectors in 2015, and the network has witnessed limited power outages or load minimisation. Minister of Electricity Mohammed Shaker said the ministry increased the capacities of the national electricity network by about 6,882MW, presenting urgent projects with estimated investments of about EGP 238bn by the end of December. Shaker said the capacity that has been added to the network helped the ministry secure the electrical supply for all sectors, and last summer witnessed notable stability and no load minimisation. The ministry succeeded in increasing the capacity of the national network by 6,882 MW of the remainder of the five-year plan and urgent plan projects until the end of December. The five-year plan projects include a steam unit at the Banha station with the capacity of 250 MW and investments amounting to EGP 1.2bn. Projects also include the expansion of the 6th of October station with the capacity of 450MW at a cost of EGP 1.6bn. The ministry completed the establishment of the Ain Sokhna power plant with capacity of 1,300MW and investments of EGP 9.1bn and the North Giza station with the capacity of 1,250MW at the cost of EGP 5bn. The total cost of the urgent plan is EGP 21.6bn. It included the establishment of 68 units to generate electricity with a capacity of 3,632 MW in Assiut, Ataka, Mahmudiya, Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Port Said, and Upper Egypt. In the field of electricity transmission, transformer stations and new lines and cables were added with an investment of EGP 6.9bn. It includes the establishment of high-voltage transformer stations with the capacity of 220-500 Mega-Volt Ampere (MVA) at a cost of EGP 895.4m and high-voltage transformer stations of 66 KV at a cost of EGP 369m: High-voltage cables of 220–500 KV at the cost of EGP 5.6bn and high voltage cables of 66 KV with investments of EGP 550m. He said the ministry is working according to long-term and medium-term strategies until 2050, including the diversification of energy sources to include pumping stations, water storage, as well as coal, solar, wind, and nuclear energy. The value of production projects of the investment plan of the fiscal year (FY) 2015-2016 will be implemented, amounting to about EGP 52.4bn. Of this amount, EGP 20.7bn and $2.7bn are the value of the urgent plan projects and €1.3bn are for the down-payment value and cost of preparing the sites of Siemens' contracts, while EGP 1.2bn constitute the value of adding mobile units of 300 MW. The ministry aims to strengthen the transmission and distribution networks in light of the large production capabilities expected to be added in the upcoming years. It also aims to expand in the use of new and renewable energy, which requires the presence and distribution of a powerful and flexible transmission network. International electrical linking is considered another one of the mechanisms that will secure and strengthen networks. The Egyptian-Saudi Arabian linking project is expected to be completed in 2019, which will allow both networks to exchange 3,000 MW during peak time.
