Power Minister to meet with FiT investors in two weeks: Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker is expected to stand firm on domestic arbitration when he sits down with around 50 companies invested in feed-in-tariff (FiT) projects in two weeks’ time to discuss “the ministry’s vision” for the phase one and two of FiT projects, said Lamia Youssef, head of the FiT unit of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company. Prior to the meeting, the minister will sit down with the ministry’s policy committee on FiT to iron out every aspect of the government’s policies for the projects, including talks with international lenders, the FiT rate, and what the minister plans to present investors for phase two. Sources tell Al Borsa that domestic arbitration will remain the government’s position at the meeting, but don’t specify whether that will apply to phase two.

This meeting comes as phase one remains at risk due to government’s stance on domestic arbitration. UAE-based Access Power MEA informed the ministry that it is reducing its investments to a single 50 MW plant from an initial pledge of investment in plants with a combined generation capacity of 150 MW, as it could not obtain sufficient funding as a result of government’s position. The ministry had to postpone a tender for a phase one plant in Kom Ombo to October after Enel Green and Abdul Latif Jameel decided to exit Egypt, a ministry source said.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has not yet decided whether to back out of funding FiT projects completely and is in talks with the government to resolve the situation, said EBRD’s Cairo Office Director Philip ter Woort, head of the EBRD’s office in Cairo. The bank would still like to be a leading lender to FiT projects, he added. He did fault the government and its insistence on domestic arbitration for the state of the FiT projects today. EBRD is one of multiple lenders we had noted was backing away from the FiT program over the state’s insistence on domestic arbitration. The bank had allocated USD 500 mn in financing for 10-15 renewable projects in Egypt.