The project will support the Government of Egypt's power sector investment plan to meet the growing electricity demand in the country and ensure access to reliable supply of power - all prerequisites for sustained economic growth and achieving the country's social development agenda.

The project development objective is to contribute to improving the security and efficiency of electricity supply by adding a new generation capacity based on the most efficient thermal power generation technology. The project comprises development and construction of a 1,500-MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant at Giza North near Cairo. The plant will use natural gas as the main fuel and light diesel oil as a back-up. The plant will be owned and operated by the Cairo Electricity Production Company (CEPC), a subsidiary of Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC).

“We are pleased to become an important development partner in Egypt's energy sector and contribute to the country's power sector development, thus, supporting economic growth and social development,” said A. David Craig, Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.

“The World Bank's support to the energy sector in Egypt is in line with the Bank's Country Assistance Strategy which emphasizes the provision of public goods through modernized infrastructure services to achieve sustainable growth,” he added.

“The Giza North power plant is a high priority investment as the existing fleet of generation plants is insufficient to maintain reliable supply of power to the growing economy,” said Vladislav Vucetic, the World Bank's Task Team Leader.

“The plant will use natural gas as the principal fuel in CCGT technology, which is both technically and environmentally most-efficient fossil-fuel electricity generation technology,” he added.

Over the last several years the World Bank became an important development partner in Egypt's energy sector through financing projects in traditional and renewable energy, and gas distribution. In 2006, the Board approved El-Tebbin power project and one year later the Board approved the GEF-financed solar-thermal El-Kureimat power project which included the first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Egypt and one of the first integrated solar-thermal power projects in the world.

In the gas sector, a project was approved in 2008 to assist in the expansion of natural gas distribution infrastructure to support the government's fuel switching strategy into natural gas, especially for residential consumption. In January 2009, the Bank approved an investment loan for the Ain Sokhna Power Project, which is based on a more efficient supercritical steam technology, the first power plant of this type in Egypt. All the projects are being successfully implemented.

The World Bank is currently involved in assisting the Government of Egypt to attract private investment in traditional and renewable power generation technologies and to implement the country's ambitious program for scaling up development of the wind and solar power plants.