The grid has a geography

Two substations can have the same capacity on paper and do entirely different jobs in the economy. At KAHRABA, we see that clearly in Belbeis and New Borg El Arab. In Belbeis, KAHRABA has approval for a project serving a water-intake pumping station supplying communities east of Cairo. In New Borg El Arab, another approved project will serve the Fifth Industrial Zone. Each has 80 MVA of contracted capacity, expandable to 120 MVA. Their capacity profiles may look similar, but the demand behind them is very different.

For industry, power is local. National generation figures tell us how much electricity the system can produce. They do not tell a manufacturer whether a particular industrial plot can connect at the capacity it needs. What matters on the ground is whether the network can deliver that power to the site.

The next question is when that demand will arrive. Factories come online at different times, install different equipment, and expand at different rates. For us, planning means looking beyond what the network carries today to what it may need to carry next.

We can already see that demand rising across our networks. KAHRABA, Valmore Holding’s power generation and distribution business, serves more than 1.5k industrial, agricultural, and commercial clients, and it increased electricity distribution volumes by over 40% y-o-y in 1H 2026. Its total installed capacity stands at around 710 MW. Planning what comes next means looking at where capacity is available, what new connections will require, and which parts of the network will need reinforcement.

Building the substation is only part of the job. Under the approved public-private partnership framework, KAHRABA will assume the right to utilize and operate the substations, interconnection lines, and feeding networks. That makes us responsible for what happens after construction too: maintaining asset performance and making room for future demand as the areas they serve grow.

For industrial growth, the map matters as much as the megawatts. More generating capacity can coexist with local bottlenecks, and those constraints have to be addressed where they occur. That is why we plan around where future demand is likely to emerge, rather than looking at national capacity alone.

10th of Ramadan shows why that planning has to stay ahead of growth. KAHRABA supports more than 900 factories there. As the industrial base expands, the network has to be ready for the demand that follows, rather than reinforced after the pressure appears.

That is the job behind the megawatts: anticipating where demand is going next and making sure the infrastructure is ready when it gets there.

Emad Ghaly, CEO, KAHRABA