The Egyptian Deputy Minister of Political Communication Development at the Ministry of Electricity, Sabah Mashaly, stated that the ministry received proposals from Shanghai Electric, Dongfang, Harbin-General Electric, El Sewedy-Marubeni, Mitsubishi-Hitachi, as well as Sumitomo, to establish coal-fired power plants according to an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract, plus financing that will reach $10b, reported Al Borsa.

Sources with the ministry stated that Sumitomo proposal was in regard to establishing a 2000MW power plant in Sidi Shebib. While Mitsubishi-Hitachi offered to build a 4000MW plant in Marsa Matrouh. Furthermore, Harbin-General Electric was bidding on the  construction of a 6510MW plant with investments reaching $8b and funded by 3 Chinese banks. Additionally, the ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with El Sewedy-Marubeni to establish a 4000MW coal-fired power plant West Matrouh on the Mediterranean coast.

These projects, together with another venture by Emirati Al Nowais Company, come under Egypt’s push to produce 7000MW electricity from coal by 2023. They are aligned with the country’s efforts to diversify its energy mix. Egypt Oil&Gas reported earlier that the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority’s (NREA) Chairman, Mohamed El Sobky, had stated that by 2022 Egypt would had increased power production from renewable resource by 20%. He added that NREA had tendered projects with energy generation capacities of 4300MW according to Egypt’s power purchasing Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) program.