Siemens celebrates milestone in Egypt power megaproject
Project will boost the country’s power generation capacity by 45% when completed
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi recently symbolically inaugurated the first phase of Siemens’ megaproject in Egypt.
The event marked an important milestone towards the completion of the project, which will boost the country’s power generation capacity by 45% when completed.
Together with its local partners, Orascom Construction and Elsewedy Electric, Siemens broke all records in modern power plant construction by connecting 4.8 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity to the grid in only 18 months after the signing of the contract for the company’s biggest single order ever, the company indicated in a press statement.
Joe Kaeser, president and CEO of Siemens AG also announced the details of a strategic agreement between his company and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to support occupational training of over 5,500 employees. In the energy sector alone, more than 20,000 workers and technicians are engaged at Siemens’ three power plant sites during implementation.
The construction works for Siemens’ megaproject in Egypt are enormous. More than 1,600,000 tons of material – including 960,000 tons of concrete and 48,000 tons of rebar steel will be processed until completion. When completed, each of the three power plants, located at Beni Suef, New Capital and Burullus, is set to become the biggest gas-fired combined-cycle power station in the world. Altogether, the three power plants will have a combined capacity of 14.4 GW.
Siemens’ megaproject in Egypt also comprises 9-year service and maintenance agreements for the three power plants to help ensure the long-term reliability, availability and optimal performance of the units.
