Egypt signed Sunday $600 million agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the 1,800 MW high-efficiency combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant project in Damanhour, 150 km northwest of Cairo. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has witnessed the signing ceremony, which was also attended by Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker in addition to the chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) and EIB representatives. The government side of the EIB agreement was signed by the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation; whereas the funding side was signed by the Central Bank of Egypt, EEHC, West Delta Electricity Production Company (WDEPC). The project aims to serve around 4 million citizens in Beheira governorate, said Minister Sahar Nasr. The total cost of the plant is $1.3 billion, including $600 million from the European Investment Bank, $80 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB), $200 million from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and $240 million from the West Delta Electricity Company. From his part, Minister Shaker said the plant is part of a five-year plan (2012-2017) to strengthen the national grid with an additional 1,800 MW of energy. The proposed plant will provide additional supply and reduce the current shortage of installed capacity by approximately 15-20%. The proposed plant is to be located on vacant land which is part of an existing power plant with old units which use either gas or oil as fuel. Three 65MWe units which have been in service for more than 40 years and are at the end of their service life will be decommissioned in 2015 and are to be demolished. The new power plant will be gas fired and will consist of two units with a generating capacity of 900 MWe each, thus together providing a total new capacity of 1800 MWe. The new units will use state-of-the-art combined cycle gas turbine technology, which is highly efficient (57.7% thermal efficiency) and has comparatively low emissions. Combined Cycle Gas Turbines are a highly efficient energy generation technology that combines a gas-fired turbine with a steam turbine. In the case of Damanhour, each of the two units consists of 2 gas turbines which a capacity of 300 MWe each, i.e. a total of 600 MWe. The heat of the exhaust flue gases is then recovered through 2 heat recovery steam generators. This is then utilized to drive one steam turbine of 300 MWe capacity in each of the two units, thus giving each unit a total capacity of 900 MWe.
