The Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) announced a regional control centre project to be built in the Nile Delta. The Minister of Electricity Ahmed Emam said, on 14 October, that the project will cost Egypt EGP 52m and takes priority among the ministry's projects. The Delta project seeks for the safe and economic production of 66 KV of electricity and aims to lessen the power pressure and cut the number of outages. It will also assist in locating and tracking the areas experiencing power cuts as well as identifying the causes for the outage. The minister said that the project will be under the supervision of the National Energy Control Centre adding that the implementation process has already started, as 4 stations located in Cairo, Alexandria, West Delta and Canal areas, were developed and two other stations in the governorate of Qena. In another statement, the minister pointed out that the projects to be implemented during the next five years will cost EGP2.242 bl. Eleven power stations are to be built during the same period and will produce 4600 MVA. Another project announced by the ministry in September was the Helwan power station. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that it will help finance the project, which will cost around EGP14bn. International institutions such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) as well as state-owned Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company (UEEPC), will also contribute to financing the Helwan station. Earlier this month, the ministry denied accusations of corruption leveled against it by former Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal during an interview with state-owned Al-Ahram in which he said that an "electricity mafia" with ties to the MOEE had imported 31 used power stations as new ones. Aktham Abou El-Ela, MOEE spokesman, said that all the power stations built during the previous period were compliant with the latest technical specifications adding that the ministry has not received any complaints from the companies using these power stations.
