At a glanceThe Egyptian Electricity TransmissionCompany (EETC) is the National Egyp-tian Transmission System Operator. Inthe framework of the planned rapidexpansion of the generation fleet, es-pecially the so-called “megadeal” pro-ject adding 14.4 GW alone, SiemensPTI has been tasked to assess requirednetwork reinforcements in the trans-mission system up to the year 2025. Inthe process, knowledge transfer toEETC engineers has been achievedthrough several training activities.

Initial situation and challengeSince the first decade of this century,the Egyptian Electricity Sector hasbeen facing problems with regards tothe required generation capacity. Thecombined population increase andeconomic growth have been resultingin an electrical load that was outgrow-ing the capacity of the installed gen-eration. This was especially the caseduring the summer months, whereload shedding and voltage problemswere expected.

The Management of the ElectricitySector has been working hard to tacklethese problems. The first of a series ofmeasures was the installation of about

2.6 GW of fast-track generation capac-ity in the time frame of 2011 to 2015.

Figure 1: Egyptian electricity sector -Development of generation and demand(excluding the renewable generationdevelopment)

By the summer of 2015/2016 theManagement of the Electricity Sectormanaged to connect a total of about3.64 GW to the network. By far themost important generation measureswere however initiated in 2015, whena contract was signed with Siemens AGfor the delivery of three new powerplants at Burullus, New Capital andBeni Suef (Ghayada). With their state-of-the-art and highly efficient gas-firedcombined cycle technology, the threeplants will deliver a total of 14.4 GW bythe time of final commissioning in2018.

Figure 2: Location of the Burullus, New Capitaland Beni Suef power plants, as well as theplanned Siemens wind turbine blade factory atAin Sokhna and the first Siemens wind projectat Ras Ghareb

Looking further into the future, theMinistry of Electricity has also em-barked on a program of converting anumber of open-cycle gas turbines tocombined-cycle power plants whichshould add another 1750 MW to thenetwork. In addition to the above-mentioned conventional generationexpansion, the Management of theEgyptian Electricity Sector is planningto add a further 7200 MW of windpower to the network by 2022. This isaccording to the strategic plan of theEgyptian Electricity Sector to increasethe percentage of the renewable gen-eration to 20 per cent of the total elec-tricity generation by year 2022.

With its generation expansion plan de-scribed above, the Egyptian govern-ment is aiming at a sizeable surplus ofpower, giving rise to an important po-tential of power export to neighbour-ing countries and even SouthernEurope. However, it is also clear thatthe dramatic increase in power flowscan only be accommodated by a strongtransmission system and that rein-forcements to the current transmissionsystem will be needed.

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

GW

YearGeneration Demand Surplus

Strategic roadmapfor Egypt’s gridSiemens PTI and EETC plan Egyptiantransmission network developmentaccomodating large generation projects

siemens.com/power-technologies

The solutionIn 2015, Siemens and EETC started aprogram of transmission system plan-ning studies in order to asses whichnetwork concepts and reinforcementswill be needed in the transmission sys-tem over the next 10 years (2015-2025). The studies focused mainly onthe 500 kV and 220 kV networks andconsisted of the following phases:

Phase 1: With the help of EETC andother Ministry of Electricity depart-ments, Siemens engineers constructeda highly detailed and up-to-date PSS®Emodel of the 2015 status of the Egyp-tian transmission system. By doing so,a fully transparent view of the existingbottlenecks was obtained and a solidbasis for further planning was ob-tained.

Phase 2: In alignment with the plan-ning experts at EETC, a PSS®E modelreflecting the expected generation andelectrical load in 2025 was construct-ed. Based on this, it was identifiedwhere the major bottlenecks in thetransmission system would occur incase no further development would bemade to the 2015 status of the net-work. Subsequently, a network con-cept was developed in order to tackleall the identified bottlenecks.

Phase 3: Finally, a PSS®E model wascreated which reflects the expectedgeneration, load and transmissionnetwork in the year 2018. The rein-forcements that are proposed in thisphase take into account the limitedavailable time to tender and build therequired infrastructure but are at thesame time in line with the goal net-work structure for 2025 identified inPhase 2. Also, the dynamic perfor-mance of the 2018 system was inves-tigated.

Furthermore the 66 kV subtrans-mission network was investigated forthe different areas and recommenda-tions were formulated in order to over-come bottlenecks.

On top of the abovementioned tech-nical studies, an extensive trainingprogram was set up regarding trans-mission system planning practices andthe handling of PSS®E for users of dif-ferent experience levels. All thesecourses were performed by SiemensPTI experts at the premises of EETC inCairo.

Key achievementsThe main benefits of the strategic sys-tem planning project for the Egyptiantransmission network included:

· compilation of an accurate and ver-ified PSS®E model of the nationaltransmission network for 2015,

· assessment of the performance ofthe existing system showing itsspecific characteristics, behavior,weak points and limitations,

· development of optimized networkstructures for the year 2025 as en-visaged by EETC,

· identification and prioritization ofcritical network reinforcement pro-jects,

· know-how transfer and staff edu-cation through workshops and cus-tomized training.

Published bySiemens AG 2017

Energy Management DivisionFreyeslebenstrasse 191058 Erlangen, Germany

For more information, please contactpower-technologies.energy@siemens.com

AL=N, ECCN=EAR99Subject to changes and errors. The infor-mation given in this document only con-tains general descriptions and/or perfor-mance features which may not alwaysspecifically reflect those described, orwhich may undergo modification in thecourse of further development of theproducts. The requested performance fea-tures are binding only when they are ex-pressly agreed upon in the concluded con-tract.

“The Masterplan project performed by Siemens PTI not only gives insight into

the future development of the Egyptian Transmission Grid, but also supports

EETC engineers in their planning tasks through knowledge transfer.”Eng. Khaled Abdelkareem H. Mohamed, EETC, Board Member for Studies and Design, Cairo-Egypt

Figure 3: View of the proposed 220 kV and 500 kV transmission system configuration