CAIRO, Aug 7 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s cabinet said on Sunday that the power plants built by Germany’s Siemens are set to start operating in December.

The plants, which will go online in December, will operate at a capacity of 4,440 megawatts, said a statement by the cabinet.

In June 2015, Egypt signed a EUR 8 billion deal with Siemens for building three combined-cycle power plants with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts each, in addition to 12 wind farms to “boost Egypt's power generation capacity by more than 50 percent”, said a statement by Siemens then.

The three plants will operate at full capacity of 14,400 megawatts by May 2018.

Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years, with power outages surging as its ageing state-run infrastructure struggles to keep up with growing demand.