The utility sector in Egypt has shown significant development in the last seven years, by almost double the installed base. This makes Egypt the second-ranked country in Africa, after South Africa, which has 60 GW installed capacity power plants.

Today, the installed based fuel mix is diverse from renewable energy (hydro, solar, and wind), natural gas, and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO). The diversity in the technologies for the generation of electricity, especially using fossil fuel, adds another beauty to the picture.

Renewable energy such as wind energy contributes approximately 2.5%, the contribution from hydropower is around 4%, and photovoltaic (PV) is approx 2.5%. The total contribution from renewable energy is 10%.

The combined cycle power system with very efficient gas turbines makes the overall cycle efficiency exceed 60% in some power plants and 58%+ in others.

The steam power plants can vary from subcritical to supercritical with an efficiency ranging from 36% to 44%.

Whereas the gas power plants open the cycle for fast connecting to the grid and flexibility.

The 60 GW installed fleet makes the Egyptian market very attractive for many service companies with very high budgets to serve such a high GW installed.

This article was contributed by our expert Hossam Morsi

Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Hossam Morsi

Q1. What are the sources of renewable energy in Egypt? 

Some of the major sources of renewable energy in Egypt are hydro energy, solar energy, and wind energy. Wind energy contributes appx 2.5%, hydropower appx 4%, photovoltaic (PV) appx 2.5% and total renewable around 10%.

Q2. What are some of the Power system issues? 

There are no specific issues except for the high efficiency in the combined cycle.