The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) has asked solar companies to pay the final installment of cost-sharing installments for projects in Benban, Aswan. Sources at the Ministry of Electricity said that the tariff unit of the EETC sent a letter to the companies to collect the final batch of EGP 3m during the coming two weeks, after sending the lab results from the transformer substations being implemented by XD-EGEMAC. The cost-sharing agreement is one of five agreements that investors who qualify to implement new and renewable energy projects on the feed-in tariff system must sign. The agreement provides for sharing the cost of linking the solar plants that will be built to the national grid, as well as the infrastructure on the project site in Benban, Aswan. According to the agreement, investors paid the value of construction of the roads worth EGP 3,100 for every 1 MW/H. They also paid for linking the plants to the transformers substations, which was worth EGP 583,000 per MW/H. Those figures increased following the flotation of the pound. The feed-in tariff (FiT) unit at the EETC previously sent a letter to investors of the solar power plants notifying them that the cost-sharing agreement value has been increased to EGP 955,000 per 1 MW/H, up from EGP 583,000. The letter did not specify whether the increase will only be applicable to the last batch or all of them. The companies have paid EGP 30m of the cost of linking them to the grid, next to 12.5% of fees. EETC signed the cost-sharing agreement with 33 solar power companies to set up electricity projects within the FiT scheme with capacities amounting to 1,900 MW.
