Report: Egypt to reap economic, political gains from interconnection electricity projects

CAIRO – 5 October 2021: Over the past years, the Egyptian Transmission Company succeeded in implementing the state’s plan to expand electrical interconnection projects that allow Egypt to transform into a global hub for electricity transmission to countries, in Europe, Africa and the Arab Gulf.

Egypt is implementing electrical interconnection projects in the coming period, with capacity of approximately 9 thousand megawatts.

An official source at the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy confirmed that Egypt is able to establish electrical interconnection lines with African, European and Gulf countries, whether to exchange energy or sell it with capacities of up to 15,000 megawatts, which represents the daily reserve in the national electricity grid.

The Egyptian Transmission Company is currently conducting studies on the possibility of raising the capacity of the interconnection line with Libya to approximately 2000 or 3000 thousand megawatts, pointing out that the interconnection line between Egypt And Libya, which currently has a capacity of 240 megawatts.

Major global power projects

The source indicated that the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company is in the process of finalizing the selection of a global consultant for the electrical interconnection project between Egypt and Cyprus with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts to review the financial and technical affairs of the project, allowing Egypt to link with all European countries and turn into a major hub for all countries of the world.

The source also revealed that the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company began adding electrical missions to raise the capacity and stability of the existing electrical interconnection line between Egypt and Sudan, and to increase the transferred capacity between the two countries from the current capacity of 80 megawatts to 300 megawatts.

Electrical connection in the south towards the African continent is being studied to take advantage of the huge potentials of hydropower in Africa, stressing that these projects will work to absorb the huge energies that will be generated from clean energy.

On Tuesday, the Saudi Electricity Company and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company signed contracts of the electrical interconnection project between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Republic of Egypt at a cost of $1.8 billion.

Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker said that this project, which aims to exchange electricity of an amount up to 3,000 megawatts, represents a strong link between the two largest electric networks in the region, and will reflect on the stability and will increase the reliability of the electricity supply between the two countries.

Egypt is linked with Jordan and Libya, and a feasibility study is currently being prepared to increase the capacity of the electrical interconnection line with Jordan to reach 2000 megawatts instead of 450 megawatts currently.

Political, economic gains

Egypt is expected to reap soon economic and political gains as a result of the implementation of electrical interconnection projects with African, European and Asian countries.

The following is the most important information related to electrical interconnection projects during the next phase, based on Egypt’s energy plan:

1- By 2030, Egypt will turn into a global energy hub for the transmission of electricity through electrical interconnection projects, according to the state's plan.

2- The selling price of kilowatt-hours for European, African and Gulf countries will be determined in hard currency.

3- The electrical interconnection projects achieve a large financial return in hard currency that benefits the Egyptian economy and contributes to the decrease in the prices of electricity segments.