The first phase of German conglomerate Siemens' project to build three power plants in Egypt will be inaugurated in February, the company's CEO Joe Kaeser said, according to Al-Ahram daily newspaper. Kaeser said the inauguration of the first stage of the project's new power plants in Beni Suef, Burullus and the new administrative capital will be in cooperation with their local partners and the Ministry of Electricity. Ibrahim El-Shahat, who is supervising the building of the Beni Suef plant, said that 50 percent of the plant's construction is complete. The plant has an overall power capacity of 2,400 MW, El-Shahat said, adding that six gas turbines have been installed with a capacity of 400 MW per turbine. The turbines were connected to the national electricity grid in November. El-Shahat said that work is underway in the construction of the second stage of the plant, which will witness the installation of two gas turbines and four steam turbines. The first steam turbine will be operational in October and remaining units will be operational in January and March 2018, with 4,800 MW to be pumped from the new plant. On the North Coast's Burullus plant, Al-Ahram reported that construction is 56 percent complete, with the plant including eight gas turbines with a capacity of 400 MW and four steam turbines with a capacity of 400 MW and two boilers to recover lost power, with 1,600 MW connected to the national grid. The overall cost for the plant is €2 billion. Electricity ministry spokesman Ayman Hamza said that work on the Siemens mega project is moving on schedule, adding that electricity minister Mohamed Shaker is closely following up on the construction process at the three plants. In 2015, Siemens signed an €8 billion ($9 billion) deal with the Egyptian government to build three highly efficient combined-cycle power plants and 12 wind power installations at a capacity of 16.4 gigawatts. The project aims to boost Egypt's power generation capacity by around 50 percent by 2018.
