Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker held a meeting with the ministry’s senior officials to review the progress of the electricity linkage project with Europe through Cyprus and Greece, as part of Egypt’s strategic plan to achieve economic development and energy security.
Also, the minister is scheduled to visit Jordan next month to complete the bilateral discussions over upgrading electricity transmission lines from 220 to 500 kv or convert it to DC system to allow the exchange of capacities ranging from 2,000 to 3,000MW.
This will enable Egypt to export its electricity surplus to neighbouring countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, and allows extending the network to provide electricity to Europe.
It comes within President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s vision and the government’s policy that aim at maximising Egypt’s role as a regional energy centre in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Meanwhile, Shaker praised the efforts exerted by EuroAfrica Interconnector in the procedures of linking Egypt and Cyprus after it has completed the studies of the project and signing implementation contracts in the presence of the Prime Minister.
He pointed out that by implementing the interconnection with Cyprus, Egypt has succeeded in laying the cornerstone for interconnection with the European Union, which will bring economic and political benefits to the countries concerned. He highlighted the efforts to complete the procedures and necessary approvals for the interconnection projects in supporting the energy mix.
The minister said that the electricity linkage with Africa was also studied to benefit from the enormous potential of hydropower in Africa, adding that the interconnection between north and south Mediterranean will accommodate the huge capacities to be generated from clean sources.
Shaker noted that Egypt is actively involved in all regional electrical interconnection projects, as it’s now connected with eastern and western neighbour countries; Jordan and Libya, in addition to the under-construction electrical interconnection with Saudi Arabia to exchange about 3,000MW, and Sudan.
