The impossibility to access modern sources of energy is a social problem around the globe. Today 1.3 billion people (19% of the world’s population) do not have access to electric power. The United National Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change requested that access to modern energy services be met by 2030. The policies adopted at various level today don't allow significant improvement in accessing modern energies to be estimated.
All parties (governments, international agencies, enterprises and volunteer organisations) working in the energy field are therefore crucial for carrying out effective action in reaching the 2030 goal.
The first of the conferences that Edison organised when preparing for COP21 concerned precisely the water resource and its commitment also in consideration of the altered conditions generated by the climate changes in progress.
Edison also decided to support the UNESCO “The Water Rooms” project that the World Water Assessment Programme of the United Nations (UN WWAP) implemented with the objective of raising awareness and educating the public at large on the need for a more sustainable use. The initiative uses a simple and immediate language for making five short films and five monologues that make up a show full of atmosphere. The project aims at crossing the borders of Expo through a tour that will allow it to be performed repeatedly on other occasions (in schools, for example).
A Joint Development Agreement was signed in July with QALAA Energy for the construction of a 180 MW thermoelectric power plant that will produce energy for the Egyptian market.
The agreement was signed in the presence of the Minister for Economic Development Federica Guidi in the setting of the Italian-Egyptian Business Council, and establishes that Edison and QALAA energy will complete the development and permit stage of the plant – a combined-cycle plant powered by the gas Edison produces in the Abu Qir concession in the Nile Delta – in the upcoming six months and that the power plant goes into operation by 2017. The execution timeframe will be extremely quick owing to the location of the power plant inside the industrial site of the Abu Qir gas treatment plant and to the use of several important electromechanical components Edison is making available. The value of the project is about 100 million euros and will guarantee efficient and sustainable electricity to Egyptian consumers while contributing toward cutting the structural energy deficit that marks the country.
Thanks to the new facility, Edison will contribute to the modernisation of the Egyptian energy system by increasing its electric capacity and developing the most efficient generation technology. Use of the combined-cycle will lead to a reduction in the need for gas for internal thermoelectric use, making higher amounts of it available for other sectors, and potential for export.
With this project, Edison plans to bring experience and expertise to the Egyptian electricity production sector as well in order to contribute to the further economic and social development of the entire country.
