Egypt and Saudi Arabia are preparing to launch the first phase of their long-planned electricity interconnection project, with trial operations on the initial line set to begin in the first week of January, Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mahmoud Essmat, told Asharq Business on December 15 during the ninth edition of the Al-Ahram Energy Conference.
The first phase will have a transmission capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW). Essmat explained that the project includes converter stations built specifically for the interconnection, in addition to subsea cables laid between the two countries to transmit power across the Red Sea.
Furthermore, he noted that a series of technical tests has been conducted from both sides to start exchanging electricity, and that the results of these tests will determine the official start of operations for the first phase.
The minister added that work on the second line is progressing in parallel with the first line. Testing of the second line is expected to take place around four months after the trial operation of the first line begins.
The electricity interconnection project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia dates back to 2012 and is estimated to cost around $1.6 billion. In October 2021, the two countries signed agreements with the companies that won the tenders launched by the electricity authorities in both countries to implement the project.
On the Egyptian side, a consortium of Orascom Construction and Hitachi ABB Power Grids was awarded the contract to build the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter station in northeast Cairo and the transition station in Taba, Sinai.
Italy’s Prysmian Group secured the contract for the ±500 kilovolt (kV) HVDC submarine and land cable system to create the interconnection across the 22-kilometer Gulf of Aqaba, while China Electrical Engineering Company and Giza Cable Company were contracted for overhead transmission lines on the Egyptian side.
