A fire broke out at the Tebbin power station south of Cairo Friday evening, after a nitrogen gas leak caused a boiler explosion in the station's first unit.
Engineers do not know the reasons behind the gas leak. Minister of Electricity Mahmoud Balbaa and an administration delegate visited the site of the incident.
An official source said a report was filed and that prosecutors were asked to conduct investigations.
Reconstruction and loss evaluation would begin Monday, the official added.
One of the engineers working at the station said on condition of anonymity that the insurance coverage had ended only a month ago. He estimated the initial losses as being at least LE500 million.
The engineers prepared a memorandum to submit to the administration, the cabinet and the minister of electricity. The memorandum stressed that the area suffered from negligence and poor maintenance, the engineer said.
Repairs will take almost a year, which might lead to further power outages during the summer of 2013, after losing about 700 megawatts of the total power generated by the statio, he added.
Talkha power plant was the site of a similar explosion and fire in October, costing the state nearly LE1 billion so far for both incidents.
