Sineng Electric, a China-based manufacturer of power electronics, has started to ship grid-forming power conversion system (PCS) stations to Egypt for two BESS projects, Nefertiti and Horus. The company gave the news from Aswan on 12 October 2026 and said that it expects the first 1.1 GW of equipment to have left by the end of the year.

The same equipment is being supplied to both projects. It consists of 12 MW medium-voltage turnkey stations, each of which has been built around the company's 1.6 MW central PCS. Nefertiti is being built in Aswan and is described by Sineng as the largest standalone BESS project that is currently under construction in Africa, while Horus is located near the coast of the Red Sea.

Those two locations have required different forms of protection. Around Aswan, where the plant stands in a desert region, the stations for Nefertiti have been given robust thermal management and protection against sand and dust, so that they can withstand high temperatures. Near the Red Sea, the equipment for Horus has been fitted with several layers of protection against high humidity and salt spray.

Both projects had also specified grid-forming operation and plant-level black-start capability as core requirements from the initial stages of planning and design. Sineng has worked with the project owner and the EPC contractors on the system-level plans by which those functions are to be carried out. Once the plants have been commissioned, they are expected to provide peak shaving, frequency regulation and the smoothing of renewable generation. The grid-forming controls are to support the stability of voltage and frequency, and the black-start capability is to assist in the restoration of the power system after an outage.

Such services are needed because Egypt has set the goal of raising the share of renewable energy in its electricity mix to more than 42% by 2030. As the country's solar and wind generation expands, utility-scale storage is expected to take a growing part in the balancing of supply and demand. For Sineng, the shipment has added to its presence in the Middle East and Africa, where it maintains a local service network, and the company will provide technical assistance to both plants throughout their operating lives.

Sineng Electric is a manufacturer of PV inverters, PCS, hydrogen production power supply systems and power quality products. According to the company, it has been ranked third worldwide in PV inverter shipments and fifth in energy storage PCS shipments.