(AFP Photo)
The tender for the Egypt-Saudi Arabia electricity interconnection project will be issued to competitors before month’s end, the Saudi Ministry of Electricity’s undersecretary Saleh Alawaji revealed Saturday.
The Saudi official told state-owned news agency MENA that even if the tender issuance is delayed, its delay will not exceed the end of this year.
Alawaji added the interconnection project will rely on direct current, instead of the alternating current that Egypt and Saudi Arabia depend on, making this project “the first of its kind”.
Discussing the delays of the tender, the Saudi undersecretary said that preparing the final technical specifications for the project necessitated more time.
In August, Hafez El-Salmawy, Chief Executive of Egyptian Electrical Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency, said that Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) is set to offer an international tender. It will be offered for the implementation of the linkage project, with investments of $1.6bn.
The project will include creating a transmission line to transfer gas between the two countries at peak times for each country, at a maximum of 3,000 MW. The line will also be used for an electricity trade exchange, especially during the winter. This will allow Saudi Arabia to export surplus electricity to its organisations in Egypt.
El-Salmawy highlighted that a special tariff for obtaining electricity from Saudi Arabia will be agreed upon. He added that Egypt cannot supply Saudi Arabia with energy until the required amounts of fuel are supplied to stations in full for units to operate at full capacity.
