Syria sees generation shortfall

Syria Electricity Deficit strains an aging grid, with blackouts, demand growth, and 20 percent under-generation; imports from Turkey and Egypt, IPP and PPP investments, and a new 600 MW plant yearly aim to bridge capacity.

According to the Public Establishment for Electricity Generation and Transmission PEEGT, Syria has a nominal installed generation capacity of 7,188 megawatts MW, which neither covers the peak demand of 6,500 MW nor meets the local demand of 22 million inhabitants.

Syria has a real generation deficit of about 1,000 MW, which is expected to increase to 1,800 MW by 2012, as stated in the Al-Thawra newspaper, even as Egypt's power investment accelerates across the region today.

Generated electricity in Syria is 20 lower than had been expected, and blackouts are frequent because of a dependency on aging power plants, and, regionally, Tunisia increases gas to meet rising power demand, coupled with a rapid growth in local demand, which has jumped from a 7 to a 10 annual rate.

PEEGT planned to cope with the growth of local demand by relying on importing electricity through grid interconnection with neighboring countries, and by using the private sector to invest in infrastructure projects through public private partnership projects and further the use of independent power producers in electricity generation.

The Syrian grid was connected to the Egyptian grid in 2003 when Egypt offered to add about 100 MW, as Egypt's wind power plans advance within its broader energy strategy. Syria has asked the Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Company TETAS to sell it an extra 250 megawatts of electricity, in a bid to raise its total electricity purchases from Turkey to 500 MW. The Syrian grid has been connected to the Turkish grid since the 1970s.

Ahmad Qussay Kayyali, the Minister of Electricity, told the Tishreen newspaper that Syria needs at least one new 600-MW power station, at a minimum cost of $650 million every year for the next six years, to reach the target capacity of 13,000 MW by 2015. He added that the Ministry of Electricity intends to diversify its sources of power generation in the country and, following talks with Iran on building power stations, to promote private-sector investment in infrastructure through the development of a gas-fired, 180- to 250-MW IPP at the Al-Nasserieh power complex.

Syria floated the tender internationally in August 2010 to invite all interested developers to offer their pre-qualification documents before the end of September this year, in order to fulfill the pre-qualification bid conditions, while Egypt boosts power investment in parallel across its energy sector. PEEGT will shortlist companies, and winners from the first round will head to the second round, the winner of which will construct the proposed power plant, which has estimated cost of about $300 million.

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