The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) decided to raise the cost of the cost-sharing agreement projects in Benban by no less than 35%. Officials at the company notified investors with the increase in a meeting on Monday and are set to send official letters with the exact increase next week. A source at EETC said that investors paid two installments of the agreement, so only one remains. But the flotation raised the prices of infrastructure equipment, which the ministry will not bear alone and plans to pass the increase onto investors. Moreover, the source said the company is seeking to collect the third installment next week. The Cost Sharing Agreement is one of five agreements that investors who qualify to implement new and renewable energy projects on the feed-in tariff system must sign. The agreement provides for sharing the cost of linking the solar plants that will be built on the national grid, as well as the infrastructure on the project site in Benban, Aswan. All companies have paid EGP 20m of the total linkage costs of EGP 32m, in addition to 12.5% in additional expenses. EETC had signed the agreement with 39 solar energy companies, 19 of which have withdrawn from the project. Sources at renewable energy companies said that the delay of announcing the winning companies in the first phase of the feed-in tariff projects was discussed in the meeting. The sources expected the winning companies to be announced within 10 days.
