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Egypt: 5 energy policy briefs

The energy policies moving Egypt’s power markets, one brief each: the problem, the mechanism, the market effect, who gains and who pays, where it stands on the path to binding law, and the official text.

Electricity tariff schedule from April 2026 · subsidy phase-out and exchange-rate indexation

Egypt · Cabinet of Egypt on the proposal of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, published by EgyptERA · decision · 2026

Where it stands: Schedule in force since April 2026 and applied by the distribution companies; review tied to Central Bank exchange rates

The tariff schedule EgyptERA published for April 2026 raises transmission-level and commercial prices sharply while freezing the protected residential blocks: extra-high voltage moves from 160 to 189 piastres per kWh, medium voltage from 194 to 255, and the smallest commercial block from 85 to 162, and the schedule states that prices are set on the Central Bank's published exchange rates and will be reviewed whenever those rates move.

The problem

Egypt has been trying to unwind universal electricity subsidies since 2014 and has repeatedly missed its own deadlines. The successive devaluations of 2022 to 2024 blew a hole in the sector's finances because fuel, imported equipment and dollar-denominated IPP payments reprice immediately while retail tariffs are administratively set and politically sensitive. The rotating load shedding of summer 2024 exposed the consequence: the system could not buy enough fuel to meet peak demand, and arrears through the chain from the distribution companies to EETC and to generators crowded out maintenance and new investment. At the same time the IMF programme review cycle made cost-reflective energy pricing an explicit commitment, so the government has been forced into a sequence of increases that it cannot politically apply evenly, which is why the schedule now carries an explicit exchange-rate review clause.

What it does

The schedule in force from April 2026, published by EgyptERA, sets extra-high voltage (220-132 kV) at 189.0 piastres per kWh for general users, high voltage (66-33 kV) at 205.0, medium voltage (22-11 kV) at 255.0 including agriculture, irrigation and water and sewage companies, and low voltage (380 V) at 274.0 for general users and public lighting and 265.0 for agriculture. For the first time the schedule carves out a separate bulk supply price for distribution companies connected to the transmission network, at 184.0, 200.0 and 250.0 piastres per kWh at extra-high, high and medium voltage respectively, five piastres below the price charged to other users at each level. Residential blocks up to 650 kWh a month are unchanged from the September 2024 schedule at 68, 78, 95, 155 and 195 piastres per kWh, and the 651-1,000 band stays at 210, but households consuming more than 1,000 kWh a month go from 223 to 258 piastres per kWh on every unit. Commercial tariffs rise hardest at the bottom: the 0-100 kWh block nearly doubles from 85.0 to 162.0 piastres per kWh, the 101-250 block from 168.0 to 216.0, the 251-1,000 bands from 220.0 and 227.0 to 264.0 and 274.0, and above 1,000 kWh from 233.0 to 279.0. Monthly customer service fees from January 2024 are carried over unchanged: 35 EGP for extra-high, high and medium voltage, 15 EGP for low-voltage general use, 4 EGP for low-voltage irrigation, and 1 to 40 EGP across the residential bands. Stamp duties under Law 111/1980 as amended remain at 3 EGP a year, 3 piastres per kWh for commercial and lighting use, and 0.6 piastres per 10 kWh for industry. Two conditions are printed on the schedule: prices assume a 0.92 power factor, and the tariff is set on the exchange rates published on the Central Bank of Egypt's official website and will be reviewed on any change to those rates.

Market effect

For transmission-connected industry the delivered price at extra-high voltage has gone from an average of 126.9 piastres per kWh in January 2024 to 160 in September 2024 and 189 in April 2026, a 49 percent rise in nominal terms in twenty-seven months, and the January 2024 schedule's separate demand charge of 40 EGP per kW per month and time-of-use split between 117.1 off-peak and 175.7 on-peak piastres per kWh has been replaced by a flat energy rate, which removes the price signal that used to reward shifting load off the evening peak. That flattening matters for a system whose 2024 shortage was a peak-hour problem. The new discount for distribution companies buying at transmission level formalises the bulk supply tariff and makes the cross-subsidy between wholesale and retail visible for the first time. Commercially, doubling the smallest commercial block is the largest single percentage increase in the schedule and hits small shops hardest, while protecting the first 650 kWh of residential consumption keeps the political cost down and keeps the largest share of subsidy in place. For developers, the 189 to 255 piastre band is the benchmark a private PPA has to beat, and it is now high enough that self-generation and P2P supply are economic for the industrial sites that qualify. The explicit exchange-rate review clause is the most important sentence for anyone hedging: it converts the tariff from a fixed administrative price into a semi-indexed one, so a further depreciation of the pound mechanically triggers another schedule rather than a multi-year political fight.

Key numbers

Extra-high voltage (220-132 kV), general users
189.0 piastres per kWh from April 2026, up from 160.0 from September 2024
Medium voltage (22-11 kV), general users
255.0 piastres per kWh, up from 194.0
Bulk supply to distribution companies
184.0 / 200.0 / 250.0 piastres per kWh at extra-high, high and medium voltage
Residential above 1,000 kWh a month
258.0 piastres per kWh, up from 223.0; blocks up to 650 kWh unchanged
Smallest commercial block (0-100 kWh)
162.0 piastres per kWh, up from 85.0
Indexation condition
Tariff set on Central Bank of Egypt published exchange rates and reviewed on any change

Who gains and who pays

  • Commercial consumers, especially small shops in the 0-100 kWh block (costs): Entry block rises from 85 to 162 piastres per kWh, the sharpest increase in the schedule.
  • Industrial and transmission-connected consumers (costs): Extra-high-voltage price up 49 percent since January 2024 and the time-of-use discount removed.
  • Residential consumers below 650 kWh a month (gains): Protected blocks unchanged from the September 2024 schedule.
  • Egyptian Electric Holding Company and the distribution companies (gains): Higher revenue and a formal bulk supply discount at transmission level narrow the cash gap.
  • Renewable developers and self-generators (gains): A higher regulated benchmark makes private PPAs and behind-the-meter generation competitive.

Implementation

Retail tariffs are approved by Cabinet on the ministry's proposal and then published by EgyptERA as a schedule with an effective date, so timing follows the fiscal year and the IMF programme review calendar rather than a regulatory hearing; there is no statutory consultation period and no published cost-of-service determination behind the individual numbers, although EgyptERA does publish a cost-of-service methodology and a methodology for calculating transmission network usage fees. Distribution companies apply the schedule from the effective date and bill monthly customer service fees and stamp duties alongside it. The previous schedule ran from 1 September 2024 to April 2026, a nineteen-month gap, and the one before that from 1 January 2024. The schedule's own exchange-rate clause is the trigger for the next revision, so the operative watch items are the pound's path against the dollar and the next Cabinet tariff decision, usually timed to the start of a fiscal year in July or to a programme review.

Concerns

  • Removal of the time-of-use split weakens the peak-shaving signal in a system that shed load in 2024
  • Doubling the entry commercial block concentrates the increase on the smallest businesses
  • Protected residential blocks leave most of the subsidy in place and the cash gap unclosed
  • Exchange-rate indexation transmits currency shocks straight into industrial power costs
  • No published cost-of-service determination behind the individual voltage-level prices

Dates to watch

  • 2026-07: Start of fiscal year 2026/27 and the usual window for a tariff decision
  • 2027: Next scheduled step in the subsidy phase-out and any IMF programme review conditionality on energy pricing

Sources

Checked against sources on .

Energy source certificates as tradable securities · Prime Ministerial Decree 1539/2025

Egypt · Prime Minister of Egypt (Decree No. 1539 of 2025), on the submission of the Financial Regulatory Authority · regulation · 2025

Where it stands: Decree issued 4 May 2025 and in force on publication; issuance, listing and registry rules still to come

Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1539 of 2025, issued on 4 May 2025, adds Article 35 bis 9 to the executive regulations of the Capital Market Law so that the energy source certificate created by Electricity Law 87/2015 counts as a financial instrument tradable on Egyptian stock exchanges, turning the green attribute of renewable generation into a security that can be sold separately from the electricity.

The problem

Egypt has more than 8.8 GW of wind and solar in operation, but the environmental attribute of that output had no legal form that a buyer could purchase, hold or resell. Exporters facing the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism, multinationals with corporate renewable targets and green hydrogen offtakers needed a documented, auditable claim on Egyptian renewable generation, and the international guarantee-of-origin systems they use are not automatically recognised in Egyptian law. At the same time renewable projects selling into EETC under build-own-operate contracts had no way to monetise the attribute separately, so the certificate value that supports project returns in other markets simply did not exist in Egypt. Without a tradable instrument and a registry behind it, corporate PPAs and the new private-to-private programme could deliver physical electrons but not the certificate a compliance buyer actually needs.

What it does

The decree was issued by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on 6 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1446, corresponding to 4 May 2025, under Presidential Decree 304/2024 delegating powers to the Prime Minister, and after the approval of the board of the Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency given on 4 March 2025 and on the submission of the chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority. It amends the executive regulations of the Capital Market Law issued by Ministerial Decree 135/1993, expressly reciting the Capital Market Law 95/1992, the Central Securities Depository and Registration Law 93/2000, Law 10/2009 on non-banking financial markets, the Electricity Law 87/2015 and the electricity executive regulations issued by Ministerial Decree 230/2016. Article One inserts a new Article 35 bis 9 providing that the energy source certificate stipulated in the Electricity Law shall be considered a financial instrument tradable on the Egyptian stock exchanges. Article Two provides for publication in the Official Gazette and entry into force on the day following publication. EgyptERA separately maintains the energy source certificate regime on the electricity side, publishing the decree alongside its licensing and renewable-connection rules, and the private-to-private rules issued in Circular 2/2024 give the underlying generation the registration and metering trail that certificate issuance depends on.

Market effect

Making the certificate a security rather than a regulatory record moves it into the Financial Regulatory Authority's perimeter: it can be listed, cleared through the central securities depository, held by funds and used as collateral, and it acquires a public price. For a Benban-scale plant selling to EETC at a feed-in tariff fixed in 2016, the certificate is incremental revenue on output already contracted, so the instrument transfers value to existing renewable assets without any change to their power purchase agreements. For a private-to-private project the certificate can be bundled with the energy or sold separately, which is the flexibility a green hydrogen or ammonia exporter needs when the physical electricity and the attribute have to be traced under different rules. For compliance buyers the significance is that an Egyptian certificate now has a legal owner and a transfer mechanism, which is the minimum requirement before any recognition negotiation with the EU carbon border regime or with voluntary standards can begin. The constraint is that a tradable instrument without a published issuance methodology, an issuance registry and listing rules is not yet a market, so the practical effect through 2026 depends on the Financial Regulatory Authority and EgyptERA issuing the rules that let the first certificates be created and traded.

Key numbers

Decree
Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1539 of 2025, issued 4 May 2025
Regulatory approval
EgyptERA board approval dated 4 March 2025
Instrument created
New Article 35 bis 9 of the executive regulations of the Capital Market Law (Ministerial Decree 135/1993)
Entry into force
The day following publication in the Official Gazette

Who gains and who pays

  • Operating wind and solar plants including the Benban complex (gains): A separable revenue stream on output already sold under existing PPAs.
  • Exporters exposed to the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (gains): A legally owned Egyptian instrument to document renewable supply.
  • Green hydrogen and ammonia developers (gains): Attribute tracing that can be structured separately from the physical power contract.
  • Financial Regulatory Authority and the Egyptian Exchange (obligation): Must write listing, issuance and depository rules for a wholly new instrument class.
  • EETC and conventional generators (costs): The green attribute of contracted renewable output can be sold away from the system that pays for it.

Implementation

The decree is short and self-executing as a matter of legal characterisation, but it does not by itself create certificates. What has to follow is the issuance side: EgyptERA rules defining which generation qualifies, how output is metered and verified and how a certificate is created and cancelled, and Financial Regulatory Authority and Egyptian Exchange rules for listing, trading, clearing and registration through the central securities depository. EgyptERA publishes the decree in its documents section alongside the renewable connection and net-metering rules and the private-to-private package, which is where the metering and registration infrastructure for eligible generation already sits. The practical sequence to watch is a published issuance methodology, the first registered certificates against an identified plant, and the first trade on the exchange; until then the instrument exists in law without a market.

Concerns

  • No published issuance methodology, registry or verification standard for the certificates
  • No listing, clearing or trading rules yet from the Financial Regulatory Authority or the exchange
  • Recognition by the EU carbon border mechanism and voluntary standards is not automatic
  • Risk of double counting between certificates and the renewable share claimed in national targets
  • Certificates stripped from output already paid for through regulated tariffs raise a cost-allocation question

Dates to watch

  • 2026: Publication of issuance and listing rules and the first registered energy source certificates
  • 2027: First trades and any recognition arrangement with EU carbon border adjustment reporting

Sources

Checked against sources on .

Integrated sustainable energy strategy update · 42 percent clean power by 2030 and a 25 GW renewables build

Egypt · Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) · plan · 2024

Where it stands: 2024 strategy update guiding procurement; 4,020 MW under construction and 12,400 MW in development against a 25 GW 2030 target

The 2024 update to Egypt's integrated sustainable energy strategy pulls the 42 percent clean-power target forward from 2035 to 2030 (30 percent renewables plus 12 percent nuclear) and sets a course to about 74 percent by 2040; NREA reports more than 8.8 GW of wind and solar operating, 4,020 MW under construction and 12,400 MW in development, for roughly 25.15 GW with about 3.35 GWh of batteries.

The problem

Egypt's 2014 Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy to 2035 set renewables at 20 percent of peak load by 2022 and 42 percent of the mix by 2035, and the country largely delivered the first wave through the feed-in tariff and the Benban complex. But the strategy was written before battery costs collapsed, before green hydrogen became a plausible export, and before the gas position reversed: domestic production from the Zohr field declined, Egypt went from LNG exporter to importer, and the summer of 2024 brought rotating load shedding. Generation remained overwhelmingly gas-fired with a fleet of large combined-cycle units, while land allocation, grid connection and currency convertibility were the binding constraints on renewable investment rather than resource or cost. A faster, storage-aware target was needed to justify the transmission build and to give developers a pipeline.

What it does

The 2024 strategy update, described by NREA as a comprehensive revision of the 2014 and 2035 strategies, raises the ceiling: clean energy is to reach 42 percent of the electricity mix by 2030, comprising 30 percent renewables and 12 percent nuclear, and about 74 percent by 2040, with the state separately aspiring to a renewables share above 65 percent of electricity sources by 2040 including battery storage. NREA reports the pipeline against that target as 8,734.88 MW of renewable capacity in operation with 500 MWh of batteries, 4,020 MW under construction with 1,350 MWh, and 12,400 MW in development with 1,500 MWh, a total of 25,154.88 MW and 3,350 MWh of storage, and states that installed renewable capacity should reach about 25 GW by 2030 including roughly 3.3 GWh of batteries. Procurement still runs on the four mechanisms created by Law 203/2014 on incentives for renewable electricity: state projects through NREA, build-own-operate tenders run by EETC, the feed-in tariff set by Cabinet Decree 1947/2014 and revised for the second round by Cabinet Decree 2532/2016, and bilateral agreements, with independent power producers selling through the national grid at an agreed tariff. The delivered fleet includes Benban at 1,465 MW built as 32 plants of 20 to 50 MW each and fully on the feed-in tariff from 2018, Gulf of Suez wind at Jabal El-Zeit (580 MW), Zafarana (545 MW), Ras Ghareb (262.5 MW), West Bakr (250 MW) and Gulf of Suez (252 MW), plus the newer Amunet 500 MW wind farm on 77 Envision 6.5 MW turbines commissioned in 2025 and the 650 MW Red Sea wind farm on 104 Goldwind turbines commissioned in May 2025. Storage has arrived with the plants: Abydos, 500 MW of solar at Kom Ombo, started in October 2024 with its 300 MWh battery bank energised in June 2025, and the 1,000 MW Obelisk solar plant at Nag Hammadi in Qena opened in January 2026 with 200 MWh of batteries.

Market effect

Pulling 42 percent forward by five years converts a long-dated aspiration into a procurement schedule, and the composition matters: 30 percent renewables plus 12 percent nuclear means the El Dabaa reactors carry a third of the target, so any slippage there falls back on wind and solar. The arithmetic implies roughly 16 GW of new renewable capacity between the operating 8,734.88 MW and the 25 GW target in under five years, about 3 GW a year against an operating base that took the whole decade since Benban to assemble, which is why the 12,400 MW sitting in development is the number to watch rather than the target itself. The storage line is the more significant change for traders: moving from essentially no batteries to 3,350 MWh alongside 25 GW of variable generation shifts value from midday energy to evening capacity and is what makes further solar bankable at Upper Egypt scale. Because BOO and IPP projects are paid in dollar-linked tariffs under EETC PPAs while retail revenue is in pounds, every new gigawatt widens the currency mismatch the tariff schedule is trying to close, which is exactly why the April 2026 tariff carries an exchange-rate review clause. For gas, displacing renewable energy at 25 GW frees cargoes for export or avoids LNG imports, so the renewables build and the gas balance are the same trade.

Key numbers

2030 clean-energy target
42 percent of the mix: 30 percent renewables plus 12 percent nuclear
2040 ambition
About 74 percent clean energy; renewables share above 65 percent of electricity sources
Renewable capacity
8,734.88 MW operating, 4,020 MW under construction, 12,400 MW in development; 25,154.88 MW total
Battery storage
500 MWh operating, 1,350 MWh under construction, 1,500 MWh in development; about 3,350 MWh total
Benban solar complex
1,465 MW across 32 plants of 20 to 50 MW, all on the feed-in tariff, from 2018
Recent commissionings
Abydos 500 MW solar with 300 MWh batteries (October 2024, batteries June 2025); Red Sea 650 MW wind (May 2025); Obelisk 1,000 MW solar with 200 MWh batteries (January 2026)

Who gains and who pays

  • Wind and solar developers and their lenders (gains): A 25 GW-by-2030 pipeline with 12,400 MW already in development and dollar-linked EETC PPAs.
  • Battery storage suppliers (gains): About 3.35 GWh of storage moves from nothing to a standard part of new plants.
  • EETC (obligation): Single buyer for BOO and IPP output and the counterparty that must connect and evacuate it.
  • Gas-fired generators and the gas supply chain (costs): Lower load factors as renewables and nuclear take a 42 percent share by 2030.
  • Electricity consumers (mixed): Lower fuel exposure over time, but dollar-linked PPA costs recovered through pound tariffs.

Implementation

Delivery runs through NREA for land and resource assessment and through EETC for tenders, grid connection and power purchase agreements, with Cabinet approving the tariffs and the PPAs. Land for renewable projects is allocated by NREA in stages, beginning with identification of promising wind-speed and irradiance zones and preliminary study, which is why the Gulf of Suez and Kom Ombo corridors dominate the pipeline. The feed-in tariff has effectively closed to new large projects after its second round and the pipeline has shifted to BOO tenders, bilateral IPP agreements and, at the margin, the 500 MW private-to-private programme. The practical tests over the next two years are whether the 4,020 MW under construction commissions on time, whether the 12,400 MW in development converts into signed PPAs and financial close, and whether El Dabaa delivers the nuclear 12 percent; NREA publishes progress annually and a quarterly capacity dashboard.

Concerns

  • Required build rate of about 3 GW a year is roughly triple the historic run rate
  • A third of the 2030 target depends on nuclear units that are not yet operating
  • Dollar-linked PPA obligations against pound-denominated retail revenue
  • Grid evacuation and land allocation remain the binding constraints, not resource or cost
  • The 2024 strategy update has no single published legal instrument setting its date and status

Dates to watch

  • 2027: Scheduled commissioning of the bulk of the 4,020 MW under construction
  • 2030: Target year for 42 percent clean energy and about 25 GW of renewable capacity
  • 2040: Long-range target of about 74 percent clean energy

Sources

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Private-to-private electricity market · EgyptERA Circular 2/2024 and the 500 MW transitional cap

Egypt · Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EgyptERA) · decision · 2024

Where it stands: Circular issued 28 March 2024; registration, standard agreements and EETC connection approvals now running against the 500 MW cap

EgyptERA's board approved the Rules Governing Private-to-Private (P2P) Projects on 28 March 2024 and issued them as Circular No. 2 of 2024, opening the first genuine corporate PPA channel under Electricity Law 87/2015: new wind and solar plants of up to 100 MW may sell directly to as many as three eligible consumers across EETC's grid, but the whole programme is capped at 500 MW and the state gives no guarantees.

The problem

Electricity Law 87/2015 promised a competitive market. It made the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) the network operator, required a financially and administratively ring-fenced market operator inside it, defined the qualified subscriber who is free to choose a supplier, and gave the Egyptian Electric Holding Company and its generation and distribution subsidiaries eight years from entry into force under Article 63 to restructure for competition, with a separate duty under Article 65 on the ministry and the agency to report the phases of market opening to Cabinet so that Cabinet could set and announce a start date. That eight-year clock ran out in July 2023 with no competitive market declared, EETC still the single buyer under Cabinet-approved power purchase agreements, and retail prices still set administratively. At the same time industrial exporters exposed to the EU carbon border mechanism, green hydrogen and desalination developers, and renewable developers with no room left in the feed-in-tariff or BOO pipelines all needed a lawful way to contract bilaterally with a private generator.

What it does

Circular No. 2 of 2024, approved by EgyptERA's board at its fourteenth meeting of fiscal year 2023/2024 on 28 March 2024 (Resolution 1/1) under Law 87/2015 and its executive regulations issued by Ministerial Decree 230/2016, establishes a transitional private-to-private market built on six documents: trade and settlement rules, standard connection agreements for the producer and for the consumer, a use-of-system agreement, and residual sale and residual supply agreements with EETC. An eligible producer must hold a valid generation licence for a facility connected to the transmission system, prove it can finance the new plant, and owe EETC nothing overdue by more than three months; an eligible consumer must be a new transmission-connected site that is not itself in the distribution business. The registration limits are explicit: total P2P capacity is capped at 500 MW, each registered generating site may not exceed 100 MW of installed capacity, only wind and solar qualify, the plant must be new and free of any prior supply contract with EETC, the New and Renewable Energy Authority or a distribution company, and one producer may contract with at most three eligible consumers. EETC may, with EgyptERA's approval, exclude parts of the grid on stated technical grounds. Where applications exceed the cap, EgyptERA ranks projects by score: 10 points each for the production facility and the consumption site, plus 5 for a new consumption site, plus 3 where the consumption site serves desalination or green hydrogen production, plus 3 or plus 1 where the electrical distance between connection points is under 100 km or under 250 km, and minus 1, minus 3 or minus 5 beyond 500 km, 750 km or 1,000 km, with a further 3 or 1 points for a credible commitment to meet all conditions for final approval within two or three years. Ties break toward the smaller plant, then the shorter average distance. Producers and consumers file day-ahead physical nominations and contract notifications; EETC validates and corrects them, determines day-ahead and residual excess and shortfall energy, collects metering data and runs settlement. The rules state that the country provides no guarantees for these projects.

Market effect

This is the first Egyptian framework in which a generator and a consumer can agree an energy price without Cabinet approval, so it creates a domestic reference price for renewable power outside the regulated tariff. The 500 MW ceiling and the 100 MW per-plant limit keep that price discovery small next to a system carrying more than 8.8 GW of installed wind and solar, but the arithmetic is sharp for the buyers who qualify: a transmission-connected industrial site paying the extra-high-voltage tariff of 189 piastres per kWh from April 2026 can instead contract a new solar or wind plant and add only the use-of-system charge of 7.25 piastres per kWh at extra-high voltage to the negotiated energy price. The scoring rules deliberately steer the first tranche toward desalination and green hydrogen offtakers and toward short electrical distances, which favours Gulf of Suez wind and Upper Egypt solar paired with nearby loads over long hauls into the Delta. Because EETC stays the residual supplier and the buyer of excess energy on regulated terms, the producer carries shape and imbalance risk against regulated rather than market prices, which lowers financing cost but caps the upside from scarcity. The ban on registering existing consumption sites means the pipeline is tethered to new industrial and hydrogen investment rather than to switching load that already exists, and the explicit absence of sovereign guarantees pushes lenders onto private offtaker credit for the first time in Egyptian power.

Key numbers

Programme cap
500 MW of total registered P2P capacity
Plant size limit
100 MW maximum installed capacity per registered site, wind or solar only
Offtaker limit
Up to three eligible consumers per eligible producer
Board decision
Meeting 14 of FY 2023/2024, Resolution 1/1, 28 March 2024
Selection bonus for hydrogen and desalination offtake
+3 points, against +5 for a new consumption site and +3 for distance under 100 km

Who gains and who pays

  • Renewable developers outside the EETC BOO and feed-in-tariff pipelines (gains): First lawful route to a bilateral, negotiated-price PPA with a private offtaker.
  • New transmission-connected industrial, desalination and green hydrogen consumers (gains): Can buy below the regulated extra-high-voltage tariff and document renewable supply.
  • Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) (obligation): Must connect, wheel, validate nominations, settle imbalances and act as residual buyer and supplier.
  • Distribution companies and the Egyptian Electric Holding Company (costs): Lose the highest-value transmission-level load and the cross-subsidy it carries.
  • Existing industrial consumers and sub-scale developers (mixed): Excluded by the new-site rule, the 100 MW plant limit and the 500 MW programme cap.

Implementation

EgyptERA registers eligible producers and consumers on application forms published on its website, requires EETC's written non-objection to connection at both ends, and then selects and authorises projects in descending score order until the 500 MW cap is reached, topping up with smaller projects if capacity remains. The agency ran a public consultation on the package on 2 October 2023, publishing draft connection agreements for producer and consumer, a model power purchase agreement, trade and settlement rules, a use-of-system agreement and residual sale and residual supply agreements before the board adopted the final text. The standard agreements and the registration form are downloadable from EgyptERA's P2P pages. The rules are expressly transitional and may be amended, modified or replaced from time to time by further circulars, and they are silent on what happens once the 500 MW is exhausted or on when Cabinet will finally set the start date of the full competitive market under Article 65 of Law 87/2015.

Concerns

  • The 500 MW cap is too small to create a liquid bilateral market or a credible forward price
  • No state guarantee and no sovereign backstop against private offtaker default
  • Excluding existing consumption sites blocks most industrial switching
  • Residual and imbalance energy priced by EETC on regulated terms rather than by a market
  • No published date for the full competitive market promised by Law 87/2015

Dates to watch

  • 2026: First registered P2P projects reaching connection agreements and financial close with EETC
  • 2027: Expected review of the 500 MW cap and of the transitional rules

Sources

Checked against sources on .

Transmission use-of-system charges · 7.25 to 19.09 piastres per kWh from 1 September 2024

Egypt · Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EgyptERA) · decision · 2024

Where it stands: Charges in force since 1 September 2024 and embedded in the standard EETC use-of-system agreement

EgyptERA's wheeling charges for third-party use of EETC's grid rose on 1 September 2024 to an average of 7.25 piastres per kWh at extra-high voltage, 16.66 at high voltage and 19.09 at medium voltage, roughly a 46 percent increase on the January 2023 levels and more than double the 2019 levels; these are the prices that decide whether a corporate PPA or a green hydrogen project can beat the regulated tariff.

The problem

Law 87/2015 obliges EETC to allow third parties to use the transmission system, but open access is worth nothing without a published, non-discriminatory price for it. Until 2019 Egypt charged a split transmission fee plus a separate loss fee, which made the all-in cost of wheeling opaque, and the charges were set in pounds that had lost most of their dollar value by 2024 while EETC's own costs for conductors, transformers and substation equipment are import-denominated. Under-recovered wheeling charges leave EETC financing new connections for private projects out of a regulated revenue base it cannot expand, which is precisely the constraint that has slowed grid access for renewable independent power producers and for the industrial and hydrogen loads in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

What it does

EgyptERA publishes the fees for use of the transmission grid as an average piastre-per-kWh charge by the voltage level at which the user connects. From 1 September 2024 the charges are 7.25 piastres per kWh at extra-high voltage, 16.66 at high voltage and 19.09 at medium voltage. They replace the schedule that ran from 3 January 2023 to 31 August 2024, which charged 4.96, 14.53 and 15.52 piastres per kWh at the same three levels, and that schedule in turn replaced the framework in force from 4 August 2019 to 2 January 2023, which split the charge into a transmission fee and a loss fee: 1.99 plus 1.27 for an average of 3.26 piastres per kWh at extra-high voltage, 5.24 plus 3.19 for an average of 8.43 at high voltage, and 7.19 plus 3.64 for an average of 10.83 at medium voltage. The 2024 step is therefore a 46 percent increase at extra-high voltage, 15 percent at high voltage and 23 percent at medium voltage over the 2023 numbers, and a 2.2-fold increase at extra-high voltage over 2019. EgyptERA also publishes the underlying calculation methodology for transmission network usage alongside its cost-of-service methodology, and the charge feeds directly into the standard use-of-system agreement that every eligible producer in the private-to-private programme must sign with EETC.

Market effect

Wheeling charges are the difference between a corporate PPA that works and one that does not. A new solar plant in Kom Ombo supplying an industrial site connected at extra-high voltage now has to add 7.25 piastres per kWh to its energy price, against a regulated alternative of 189 piastres per kWh from April 2026, so the headroom is wide and the extra-high-voltage charge is not the binding constraint. At medium voltage the picture reverses: 19.09 piastres per kWh of wheeling against a regulated medium-voltage tariff of 255 piastres per kWh still leaves room, but the charge is 2.6 times the extra-high-voltage rate, which pushes private supply toward large transmission-connected offtakers and away from distributed industrial parks. That is consistent with the private-to-private rules, which only admit transmission-connected sites. For green hydrogen and desalination projects in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the extra-high-voltage charge plus the private-to-private scoring bonus for short connection distances is what makes co-located wind and solar cheaper than grid-supplied power. For EETC, the increase is a real-terms recovery rather than a windfall: a 2.2-fold rise at extra-high voltage since 2019 is less than the depreciation of the pound over the same period, so wheeling revenue has still fallen against the import cost of network equipment.

Key numbers

Extra-high voltage wheeling charge
7.25 piastres per kWh from 1 September 2024, up from 4.96 (January 2023) and 3.26 (August 2019)
High voltage wheeling charge
16.66 piastres per kWh, up from 14.53 and 8.43
Medium voltage wheeling charge
19.09 piastres per kWh, up from 15.52 and 10.83
Wheeling as a share of the regulated tariff
3.8 percent of the 189 piastre extra-high-voltage tariff; 7.5 percent of the 255 piastre medium-voltage tariff

Who gains and who pays

  • Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) (gains): Higher recovery for third-party use of the network it must build and operate.
  • Renewable developers wheeling to private offtakers (costs): Adds 7.25 to 19.09 piastres per kWh to delivered cost depending on connection voltage.
  • Transmission-connected industrial and hydrogen consumers (gains): A published, non-discriminatory access price makes private supply bankable.
  • Medium-voltage and distribution-connected users (costs): At 19.09 piastres per kWh the charge is 2.6 times the extra-high-voltage rate, discouraging smaller private deals.
  • Distribution companies (mixed): Pay the same use-of-system economics for transmission-level supply while losing their largest customers to private contracts.

Implementation

The charges are published by EgyptERA as a standing schedule with effective dates rather than by individual decision letter, and they apply through the standard use-of-system agreement between EETC and the eligible producer. EgyptERA also publishes the calculation methodology for transmission network usage fees, so the derivation is auditable even though the underlying cost base is not. Because the schedule has moved roughly every eighteen months since 2019, a project financing a fifteen- or twenty-year PPA must price wheeling as a floating rather than a fixed cost, and most private-to-private structures pass the charge through to the consumer. The next revision will follow the same path: an EgyptERA determination applying the published methodology to an updated EETC cost base, most likely alongside the next Cabinet retail tariff decision.

Concerns

  • Wheeling charges revised roughly every eighteen months, leaving a floating cost in twenty-year PPAs
  • Medium-voltage charge at 2.6 times the extra-high-voltage rate shuts out distributed private supply
  • Underlying EETC cost base behind the methodology is not published
  • Real-terms recovery still lags the pound's depreciation against import-denominated network costs
  • No locational or congestion element, so charges do not signal where new connections are cheap

Dates to watch

  • 2026: Possible revision of the transmission usage fees alongside the April 2026 retail tariff cycle
  • 2027: First private-to-private projects paying the charge under signed use-of-system agreements

Sources

Checked against sources on .