Orascom Construction PLC announced that construction and commissioning at the $380 million Ras Ghareb Wind Energy project in Egypt was completed 45 days ahead of schedule. The wind farm was fully connected to the grid and ready for commercial operation at maximum capacity as of October 31.
The wind farm has a power generation capacity of 262.5 MW and is the first renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) project of its kind and size in Egypt. The project was executed on a build-own-operate (BOO) scheme by Ras Ghareb Wind Energy SAE, a company established by a consortium of ENGIE (France), Toyota Tsusho Corporation/Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation (Japan) and Orascom Construction.
The generated power is sold under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). Orascom Construction was the EPC contractor for the civil works and electrical systems and owns a 20% stake in the project.
Construction and commissioning was completed 45 days ahead of schedule despite a challenging contractual construction period of 24 months. As the project’s construction contractor, Orascom Construction completed all 125 wind turbine foundations 73 days ahead of schedule and energized the substation 31 days ahead of schedule. These milestones enabled the partial start of commercial operation for a portion of the wind farm since June 2019. Furthermore, Orascom Construction completed over 3.5 million-man hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) on the project.
The consortium arranged non-recourse project financing from The Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) in coordination with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Société Générale under a Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) cover. Commercial International Bank (CIB) Egypt is acting as working capital bank and Attijariwafa Bank provided an equity bridge loan to Orascom Construction.
Osama Bishai, CEO of Orascom Construction, commented, “We are very pleased to complete Egypt’s largest renewable energy project significantly ahead of schedule. This project highlights our construction and financing capabilities along with the successful collaboration with our international partners, financial institutions and the client. We remain focused on expanding our portfolio of recurring income projects.”