Power Plants in Egypt

 
 

Vocabulary

clever	plant (3)	conventional
wind	turbine	operation (2)
region	overload	infrastructure
crucial	gradually	air conditioner
supply	discuss	power plant
hope	giant (2)	in order to
install	outage	responsible
trend	pay back	renewable
global	combine	hydrocarbons
boss	minister	behind (2)
fan (2)	pleased	enormous
profit	analyst	maintenance
desert	progress	under construction
fund	capacity	consortium
loan	oversee	guarantee
steel	lucrative	grace period
boast	resource	challenge (2)
grace	logistical	component
site	hook up	innovative
giant	expect	overheat
local	cover (2)	attractive
suffer	shortage	wind park
grid	cut out	pressure (2)
vast	situation	carpenter
fuel	stabilize	convenient
source	field (2)	competitive

 
 
 

Video One: Power Plants in Egypt, one

 
 

Transcript

South of Cairo, in Beni Suef, Siemens is building one of three natural gas-fired power plants. Each one will provide four times as much energy as conventional nuclear plants. They are set to go into operation next year (2017).

There will also be wind parks with six hundred wind turbines.

And Siemens is behind it all.

Projects are urgently needed.

Siegfried Russwurm, Siemens Chief Technology Officer: “During the summer in Egypt when air conditioners are running, there’s a power outage somewhere every day.

That’s why energy supplies are crucial. That includes infrastructure and transport, which we are now discussing.”

The turbines are built in Berlin. The technology giant is hoping to receive more contracts from other regions of Africa and the Middle East.

It hopes gas powered plants and green energy will be lucrative.

Siegfried Russwurm, Siemens Chief Technology Officer: “We are seeing that those responsible for energy policy in this region are finding that installing renewable energy is more and more attractive. And if we combine that with the global trend, we will gradually move towards burning fewer hydrocarbons.”

Egyptian foreign minister, Sami Shukri and Siemen’s boss Joe Kieser were pleased with the progress of the projects.

Siemens is now expecting lucrative maintenance and service contracts,

Analysts say the power plants themselves bring in little profit.

 
 
 

Video Two: Power Plants in Egypt, two

 
 

Transcript

About an hour’s drive from Cairo in the middle of the desert, a new gas-fired power plant is under construction. Eventually there will be three of them.

This plant will have an enormous capacity of 4.8 gigawatts. The project is being funded by an international consortium of banks, and it’s being overseen by Siemens Egypt employees.

Sherif Kotb, Siemens Manager: “These loans were covered and guaranteed by the credit agencies and the German government in order to get a competitive and longer grace period for paying back these loans.”

Building a power plant in the desert is not only a financial challenge, but a logistical one too. Many of the technical components come from Germany. It often takes three months for them to reach the site.

Engineers had to come up with clever, innovative ways to cool the gas turbines. Because there’s no water here, the turbines have to be cooled with giant fans to stop them from overheating.

Local companies mainly provide steel and other metal parts. The three power plants have already given a huge boost to the Egyptian job market: six thousand people are employed at this construction site alone.

Egypt has suffered from a shortage of power for decades. It often cuts out for hours at a time, especially in summer, when air conditioning are running on high and overload the grid.

And without power, most people can’t work. These carpenters say they hope the situation improves. It was bad in summer, but in the last four months, there have been fewer power cuts.

People want to see vast improvements in their living conditions. And that puts time pressure on the builders. Since they’ve started working, two turbines have gone into operation to stabilize the power supply.

But why are they using gas as the fuel?

Sherif Kotb, Siemens Manager: “Because Egypt is rich in gas resources; we have our own gas fields. So this is the cheapest and most convenient power source for Egyptian electricity.”

All three plants should be hooked up to the grid by 2018. And then, they’ll provide electricity to half the Egyptian population.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

Questions

1. Which provides more energy, gas-fired or nuclear power plants?

2. Demand for electrical power is constant year round. True or false? When is the demand for electricity greatest in Egypt? Why is it greatest then?

3. Until now, is the electricity supply been adequate for Egypt? Has it effected business and the economy?

4. Do all the components for the power plants come from Siemens factories in Germany? What comes from Germany and what comes from Egypt?

5. Which is more lucrative or profitable for Siemens, constructing power plants or their maintenance and servicing?

6. Siemens is funding the power plant project. Is this right or wrong?

7. Why are the power plants burning natural gas? Does Egypt import gas? Are there vast supplies of water? What do they say about water?

8. Is Egypt going to rely on gas indefinitely? What are the longer term goals?

 
 

A. What are the main sources of electrical power in your city and country?

B. Is this adequate or is more power needed?

C. Is there a move towards green energy?

D. Does the demand for electricity vary? When is there a greater demand for power?

E. What will happen in the future?