(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) and its subsidiaries have made total investments amounting to EGP 33bn during fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, according to EEHC Chairperson Gaber Desouky.
Desouky's comments came during the company's Ordinary General Assembly and Extraordinary General Assembly meetings, headed by Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker.
Desouky said that, thanks to the support of Egypt's political leadership, the EEHC has succeeded in overcoming the challenges it faced during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The company has also managed to stabilise the national grid, bridged the gap between production and demand for electricity, and completed steps to rehabilitate electricity companies.
He added that many measures have been taken, the most important of which is the settlement of financial entanglements between the holding company and its subsidiary companies with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.
This has taken place through the implementation of the Council of Ministers' decisions, on the basis of which protocols were signed to resolve the entanglements.
Desouky pointed out that the capacity of Egypt's national grid increased by 1,199 megawatts (MW) to 59,529 MW, with the amount of energy generated reaching about 197.3bn kWh.
The efficiency of the existing power plants continues to increase, in addition to the necessary maintenance and overhauls being conducted to ensure their readiness. This has taken place without affecting the continuity of supply for all State sectors.
The EEHC Head said that a plan is currently being implemented to strengthen the network in order to bear expected loads.
This work is taking place in continuous coordination with Egypt's petroleum sector, to provide the necessary fuel for the stations. It comes in addition to continuing economic operation policy for the generating units.
Desouky said that the implementation of projects to develop electricity distribution networks and control centres has been completed, including replacing regular meters with prepaid meters and smart meters.
Customer service centres and many services have also been developed to improve the quality provided to customers. This includes launching a unified electronic platform for the electricity sector, and making it available on the EEHC website, to receive citizen requests and provide services electronically.
Moreover, there is a mobile application to provide smart services to charge prepaid meters through mobile devices using the NFC feature, namely Sahl, El Kahraba, Khales, and My Fawry.
Desouky pointed out that there are now 37.1 million subscribers to this service, reflecting a growth rate of 2% over the previous year. Of this number, about 9.5 million subscribers have prepaid meters, accounting for 26% of the total number of subscribers.
The management of available cash liquidity has also been strengthened to secure payment of the inevitable liabilities and dues of the petroleum sector. He pointed out that for the first time since the EEHC's establishment, all due liabilities have been paid, in addition to the repayment of about 87% of the value of petroleum product withdrawals in FY 2019/20.
Desouky added that the procedures for activating the collection of accumulated debts have been completed. These cover drinking water and sanitation companies, as well as business sector companies, and amount to about EGP 19.8bn.
He referred to the signing of a protocol between the EEHC and three companies in the mineral, chemical, spinning and weaving holding business sectors, to settle the outstanding debts and set up a mechanism for paying monthly bills.
Furthermore, coordination will take place between the EEHC and the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Sanitation regarding the signing of a protocol to settle the owed debts and establish a mechanism to pay the monthly bills.
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