The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) is set to complete its analysis of the financial offers presented by three companies to establish five power control centres within three weeks. Sources in the EEHC told Daily News Egypt that the committee responsible for the tender has completed the analysis of the technical offers presented by Siemens, General Electric, and Schneider. The new power control centres are located in the areas of the North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company, the Suez Canal Electricity Distribution Company, and the South Cairo Electricity Distribution Company. These areas are densely populated and need expansion to improve the service. The sources explained that it is possible to assign the implementation of five control centres to more than one company if the financial offers are identical or similar. The winning company will implement a major control system, develop protection and communication networks to increase operational performance, and improve the quality of the electrical feed. The sources said that the companies competing for the tender implementation were accepted among the eight companies that originally submitted their financial and technical bids. The importance of the control centres is due to the ability to monitor and control the components of the electrical network, which allows quick handling of emergency problems, and the ease of providing feed alternatives to places where failures occur, and reduce the downtime, and work time manoeuvre to change the loads and reduce losses in the network, in addition to planning future loads, maximising the utilisation of the technical assets of the electricity network, as well as maintaining the equipment and state investments. The Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mohamed Shaker, said that the sector is seeking to implement the plan to develop and modernise transmission and distribution networks and control centres to accommodate the added capabilities of new projects and to raise the level of service provided to the public with high efficiency. He explained that the future vision of the electricity sector is based on the transformation of the current network from a typical network to a smart network using modern technology and information systems, and there is interaction between the operator and the consumer to manage energy demand and take full advantage of all available possibilities.
