Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb met with an investor Sunday to discuss the possibility of investing in a power plant in the Red Sea Governorate, according to an official cabinet statement. The Minister of Electricity and the head of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company also attended the meeting. The new power station, which will have a capacity of 1700 MW, will be built in two phases. The ministry spokesman did not respond to requests for further information. Across Egypt, residents have been experiencing increasingly regular power shortages. The Ministry of Electricity has attributed the electricity blackouts to "shortages in fuel supply", which have forced the government to reduce the load on the power grid. "Hopefully it will not be extended till the summer," said Aktham Abu El-Ela, first undersecretary of the ministry in February. In an effort to address the problem, the ministry announced in January that Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed to undertake the Egyptian-Saudi electrical linkage project which aims to share power between both countries during peak consumption period. It is expected to increase the combined capacity of the electrical grid to 3,000 MW. It will be finished by 2016. The ministry has also indicated plans to increase reliance on renewable energy sources. By 2020, the government aims to produce 20% of the country's energy through new and renewable energy, said Minister of Electricity Ahmed Emam, during the Future Investment Opportunities in the New and Renewable Energy summit in February. Around 12% of the electricity will be generated using wind energy while the remaining 8% will be produced through "other renewable energy sources".
