Egyptian Global Logistics (EGL) has recently been hired to handle the delivery of power transformers for the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). The company delivered the first statcom power transformers in Egypt’s history from Alexandria Port to the East-Owinat site 1,600 kilometres away. 

Hitachi ABB Power Grids provided EETC with the high-performance grid stabilisation technology to improve power quality and expand transmission capacity in the strategic Owinat development area in southwest Egypt, where desert wasteland is being reclaimed for agricultural use.

Two transformers weighing 128 ton each were shipped from Antwerp on a gearless vessel and offloaded by two heavy-lift cranes at Alexandria port. EGL, part of the WCA Projects alliance, then took over to move the units from the crane hook to the job site. The scope of work included lifting and transport engineering, port, route and site survey as well as supplying two 500-ton cranes to offload the transformers to EGL trailers.

EGL also handled all the road permits and then proceeded with the transport of transformers from the port to the job site where the units were set on foundations using hydraulic jacks. A further challenge in the offload was the access to the site, where the transformers had to be skidded 45 metres to the foundation. An additional challenge was the fact that the access is curved and sloped at 25 degrees.