By Fred Akanni
Thirteen companies have submitted applications to bid for the civil works of the 1,950 MW Southern Helwan power station project in Giza, in the Cairo Governorate, in Egypt. Project owner is Upper Egypt Electricity Production Co (UEEPC ), a subsidiary of the Egypt Electricity Holding Company. The contractors include Orascom Egypt, Archirodon of Greece, Arab Contractors, Project, Misr Concrete, Ipex of China & the Saudi Bin Laden Group.
The Southern Helwan power station is one of six plants proposed under the country’s seventh, five year, electricity supply infrastructure plan (2012-2017), with a combined capacity of 6,900MW, according to an Egypt Electricity Holding Company report.
The civil works package for Southern Helwan plant will be part financed by the World Bank, which is also helping to fund the construction of the natural gas pipeline to the plant. Total estimated project costs for the station are put at $2.13 Billion (or Egyptian Pounds L.E. 15 Billion). Fund raisers include the World Bank, $500 million, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) , $ 450 Million, Kuwait based Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (AFESD), $196 Million, Kuwait Fund For Economic and Social Development (KFESD), $107 Million and African Development Bank (AfDB) $90 million. Project consultant is PGESCo, an Arab firm of consulting engineers. The facility is scheduled for completion operation by the end of 2016.
