Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC)

EEHC has a relatively young fleet of fossil fuel power plants (the average build date of active plants and those committed to being built was 2001). EEHC added 24.5 GW of fossil capacity across 14 plants between 2014 and 2018. These assets have long lifetimes ahead of them, and for financial reasons EEHC will want to continue using them until their retirement dates in the 2030s and 2040s. The company faces significant issues of lock-in and stranded assets, should the social, political or regulatory landscape change. EEHC is also continuing to invest in coal, with the 4 GW Matrouh plant coming on stream in 2022 and the 6 GW Hamrawein plant in 2025.

Egypt historically had a large proportion of low-carbon energy; when the Aswan High Dam was completed in the early 1970s, it provided half of Egypt’s electricity. Egypt has abundant potential for solar and wind, providing EEHC with a massive opportunity to generate a high proportion of its power from renewables. Given the country’s rapidly depleting fossil fuel reserves, EEHC could significantly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and uncertain prices by building a portfolio of solar and wind.

EEHC has no climate or decarbonisation commitments. It is investing in some new renewable capacity, although the details around deployment are not clear and it appears to be for reasons of fuel diversity rather than climate concern. EEHC is also building 10 GW of new coal plants, with the 4 GW Matrouh plant due to become operational in 2022 and the 6 GW Hamrawein plant in 2025.

EEHC does not have a transition plan. As a state-owned monopoly, the company is responsible for delivering the government’s target of 20% renewables by 2022. However, this seems unlikely given that renewable generation in 2018 was 8%.

EEHC is investing in small amounts of renewables but far larger amounts of coal and gas. The company built 14 fossil fuel plants with capacity of 24.5 GW between 2014 and 2018 but no renewables in that time.

In the past five years, emissions intensity has flatlined as new capacity has largely reflected the existing, predominantly gas, fuel mix.

EEHC is planning to increase coal from 0% of capacity now to 17% by 2025. Small amounts of renewable growth (360 MW of wind and 2.4 GW of pumped hydro) are significantly outweighed by fossil fuel growth. In short, EEHC is taking almost no steps towards decarbonisation.