The Electricity Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency issued a decision to determine a fee for integrating energy produced from solar plants for irrigation activity on the electrical grid this week, causing many companies working in the field of installations to be puzzled, especially since no fees were imposed on them earlier.

The main objective of the decision is to open the way for farms consuming large amounts of electricity to implement solar irrigation plants with a net-metering system, especially since this system did not exist before for farms, and solar-powered irrigation pumps were being implemented that were not connected to the network, according to informed sources who spoke with Daily News Egypt (DNE).

The main reason for not connecting the solar energy plants implemented for irrigation to the electrical network is due to the presence of some technical problems related to connecting them to the medium voltage network.

The agency set the value of the integration fee that was approved for the irrigation activity separate from the decision for the rest of the participants at an amount of 10.6 piasters per KW/hour that will be applied to all licenses issued for those projects.

The decision is expected to help agricultural entities to reduce their energy expenditures and turn to solar energy, especially since refraining from connecting capacities to the network was not enough to reduce expenses and meet the needs of agriculture, as these entities do not own any batteries from which they can continue to operate at night.

It is expected that the agency will issue regulations governing the process of linking solar energy projects for irrigation activity to the net metering system on the electric grid, and it will be circulated to electricity distribution companies.

The heads of three companies working in the field of solar energy installations confirmed that the decision announced by the agency was a surprise to everyone and is still under discussion with officials.

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