Egypt has made great strides in achieving self-sufficiency in power production.
The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy has recently released ‘the Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035 (ISES)’, in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030.
The vision aims to render the national economy diversified, competitive and balanced, within the framework of Egypt’s sustainable development aspirations.
The ISES ensures continuous and diversified energy security and establishes the necessary conditions to increase the development of renewables by engaging all sectors.
Moreover, the strategy confirms Egypt’s ambition to become an energy hub between Europe, Asia and Africa by expanding grid interconnections across the Arab region and beyond.
Egypt is working on increasing the supply of electricity generated from renewable sources to 42% by 2035, with winds providing 14%, hydropower 1.98%, photovoltaic (PV) 21.3%, concentrating solar power (CSP) 5.52%, and conventional energy sources 57.33% by 2035.
The $1.8 billion electricity interconnection project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is progressing as the construction of pylon foundations in both countries is in final stages, the Ministry of Electricity announced in a recent statement.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this is the first ever large-scale high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection link in the Middle East and North Africa.
It will carry power along a 1,350 km route (839 mile), using overhead power lines and a subsea cable across the Red Sea.
In October 2021, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) signed an agreement, awarding contracts for the Saudi-Egyptian electricity interconnection scheme that will enable the two countries to exchange up to 3,000 MW.
The first 1.5 GW phase will be operational by 2024. Phase II, with 1.5 GW, will follow a year later, Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker said in a recent statement.
The national grids of both countries will be linked from Badr City in Egypt to Medina and Tabuk in Saudi Arabia by a transmission line, stretching 1,300 kilometres and 22 kilometres of cables in the Gulf of Aqaba.
It will have a total capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW). Surplus power will be exchanged between the two countries during peak times.
Saudi Arabia aims to increase the share of natural gas and renewable energy sources in electricity production to about 50% by 2030, while Egypt targets 42% of electricity generation from renewables by 2035.
“The project offers Egypt multiple benefits. The country will have the chance to use Saudi electricity at peak consumption in the evenings, while Saudi Arabia will benefit from Egyptian electricity at their own peak time in the afternoon,” a local newspaper quoted Hafez el-Salamawi, professor of energy engineering at Zagazig University, as saying.
“Egypt will also be able to access the wider Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) grid, with the possibility of exporting electricity to Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait,” el-Salamawi added.
He noted that Egypt has created a large surplus of electricity over the past few years by building new power stations and upgrading existing ones after frequent blackouts in 2014.
“That, combined with our natural gas bonanza, will help Egypt position itself as a regional energy hub,” el-Salamawi said.
Egypt and Sudan are also working to increase the capacity of their electrical interconnection line from 80 MW now to 300 MW.
Egypt recently supplied electricity to Sudan, which will be added to the Sudanese power network, the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy said.
Egypt also signed two agreements with Cyprus and Greece to conduct studies for a three-way 2,000 MW electrical interconnection.
“The electrical interconnection project between Egypt and Cyprus, and from there to Greece and then to the rest of Europe will help Egypt become an important energy partner for Europe,” Ahmed Samir, professor of road and construction engineering at Benha University told the Egyptian Mail.
“Egypt already has power links with Jordan, Sudan and Libya and is looking forward to increasing power links with other Arab, African and European countries, making it an energy centre in the Middle East, with Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the east, west with Libya, south with Sudan, and north with Cyprus and Greece,” Samir said.
“This is a real turning point for Egypt, which relied on energy imports for years in the past,” he said, adding that such projects will boost national income and promote energy security.
Current international conditions prompted Egypt to intensify its efforts to become a regional energy hub, with a focus on supplying natural gas and electrical power to neighbouring countries and boosting local investments in green hydrogen production, Samir told this newspaper.
Egypt’s recent achievements in producing considerable surpluses in electrical and natural gas production have allowed the country to play a major role in meeting energy needs at a regional level, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, professor of energy and mechanical power engineering at Cairo University.
Egypt has achieved an electricity surplus of more than 30%, thanks to the implementation of several mega projects that ended decades of chronic power outages.
Egypt will be one of the fastest growing non-hydropower renewables market in the region, with a capacity expanding by more than 8.5 GW at an average rate of 22.1% year-on-year between 2019 and 2028.
This rate boils down to a number of key factors, including the availability of solar and wind potentials, and the decreasing costs of their production.
With the growth in capacity and a robust export market, Egypt is set to be a regional leading hub in electricity.
The new capacity in Egypt will account for almost 65% of the region’s total net growth in renewables, thanks to high-volume private sector investments.
Egypt has constructed a number of electric power production stations and solar energy compounds across the country.
Benban solar park is an example of this. It is a power complex of 41 solar power plants being built in Benban, about 650km south of Cairo and 40km northwest of Aswan.
Benban is touted to become the biggest solar photovoltaic park in the world, upon completion.
Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker said that the state has established multiple state-of-the-art new power plants in Upper Egypt and nationwide, with a focus on producing renewable energy, to end all shortages in electricity and ensure a stable supply of power to various development projects.
The State-owned New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is overseeing the 1.8GW project, which includes a number of small solar power plants, constructed in partnership with the private sector and global expertise specialised in the field.
Its cost stands at roughly $4 billion and total capacity reaches 1650 megawatts, which corresponds to an annual production of about 3.8 terawatt-hour (TWh).
The project is a part of Egypt’s Nubian Suns Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (FiT) programme announced in September 2014, which is in line with the government’s Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035.
