Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated eight power stations, adding more than 3,600 MW to the national electricity grid at a total cost of $2.7b, reported Ahram Online.

The projects, several of which entered service throughout the past year, include the Upper Egypt West Assiut power station that has a production capacity amounting to 1,000 MW.

According to Egypt Independent, President Sisi inaugurated the power station in west Assiut, declaring it an unprecedented development completed in record time.

The West Assiut power station was constructed by a consortium led by General Electric at a cost of $776.5m and began operations in two phases in May and August 2015.

In addition, the Electricity Ministry is working to install smart grids to Assiut Power Stations in order to transmit and distribute power, wrote All Africa. According to the ministry, this will greatly contribute to improving the quality of energy and securing supply as smart grids would help reduce investments needed for the infrastructure.