Comprehensive Review on Renewable Energy Sources in Egypt-Current Status, Grid Codes and Future Vision

Abstract

The development of the energy sector in Egypt is considered an urgent issue due to the rapid population rise rate. In particular, renewable energy sources (RESs) applications play an essential role in the coverage of energy demand. Therefore, Egypt has ambitious plans towards RESs to combine a sustainable energy future with economic growth. Egypt has high potentiality for RESs and their applications, nevertheless, the study of this modality remains below the required level. Due to the widespread use of RESs, communities are facing stability issues as the power converters-based RESs create a significant lack of power inertia, causing system instability and power blackouts as well as issues of power quality such as harmonics or resonances due to the power converters and their interactions with the system. This work presents a recent review supported by a statistical analysis about the current situation in Egypt according to the last data carried out from local/global reports. In addition, this review discusses specifications of technical design standards, terms, and equipment parameters for connecting small, medium, and large-scale solar plants, respectively to the Egyptian grid in accordance with the Electricity Distribution Code (EDC), Solar Energy Grid Connection Code (SEGCC), and the Grid Code (GC). Interestingly, the use of hydropower and emergent solar energy is considered the most promising RES variant, besides the wind energy at the coastal sites. This review characterizes the progress in Egypt and classifies interest areas for RESs recent study, e.g., photovoltaic (PV), solar chimney (SC), concentrated solar plant (CSP), and wind energy in Egypt. To maximize the RES hosting capacity in Egypt, various energy storage systems are required to be integrated into the distribution networks. Finally, a view of existing gaps, future visions and projects, and visible recommendations are defined for the Egyptian grid.