CAIRO: As part of a broader program that aims to meet the growing need for electricity Egypt, the World Bank's board of executive directors approved on Tuesday an additional loan of $240 million for the Giza North Power Project. The project's goal is to ensure an “efficient, reliable, and sustainable” power supply to Egypt, which is currently undergoing economic and political transformation. Approved initially in June 2010, it is expected to power more than five million households in the governorate of Giza, becoming a major infrastructure development project. “We've been fighting for a stimulus package in Egypt, this is one of them,” said Alaa Ezz, secretary general of the Federation of Egyptian Industries. Ezz said that such a stimulus package brings into the country a large sum of foreign currency as investors or development institutions flock to support projects, such as the Giza North Power facility. “You have dollars coming in and being converted to Egyptian pounds, so you are definitely helping your foreign reserves, approval of such a loan will help attract more development institutions to Egypt,” he said. “It will be part of the stimulus package that the Egyptian economy needs, making the country a good haven for investments,” Ezz added. In November 2010, Egypt and the World Bank signed the first loan agreements for the project, which was about $600 million. Giza North will be a power plant compromised of a 1,500-MW combine cycle gas turbine (CCGT). The plant will use natural gas as the main fuel and light diesel oil as back-up, according to a statement from the World Bank. The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) will be the owner and operator of the new plant. Over the years, helping finance several energy projects, the bank has become a strategic development partner in Egypt's energy sector, whether in the field of natural gas-based “conventional” technologies or the renewable energy sector. The bank approved the Clean Technology Fun and IBRD-financed Wind Power Development Project in 2010 to support the development of power transmission infrastructure in order to connect privately financed wind power plans in the Gulf of Suez. In 2007, the bank approved the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-financed solar-thermal El-Kureimat power project, which also included the first concentrated solar power (CSP) plan in Egypt and of the country's first integrated solar-thermal power projects in the world, according to the statement.
