The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company has signed a loan contract with a consortium of 10 Egyptian banks worth EGP10b ($1.2b) to partially finance three new power plants to be built by German firm Siemens, reports Ahram Online.

The $8b deal with Siemens, signed in June, will build natural-gas and wind-powered plants in Beni Suef, Kafr El Sheikh and the new administrative capital – adding 14,400MW of power to the Egyptian grid.

The plants are expected to begin operation in December 2016 envisaged to raise country’s electricity capacity by more than 50%. The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy is trying to expand country’s electricity generation and transmission capacities to meet rapidly growing domestic public and industrial demand.

Electricity Minister, Mohamed Shaker has stated that the goal is to raise electricity capacity to 49,000MW before 2020, up from current 32,000MW, according to Egypt Independent.

The banks included in the group are the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, the Arab African International Bank and others, Egypt Independent reports.