The Italian Prysmian Group won the tender for the Egyptian-Saudi electrical interconnection cables project after competing against Norway’s Nexans.
Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) chairperson Gamal Abdel Rahim said Prysmian won after providing the best offer price, and the signing will be held within two weeks.
Prysmian will connect two switch stations in Egypt and Saudi Arabia in addition to a submarine cable of 500 kV that is to cross the Gulf of Aqaba with a length of 16 km.
Abdel Rahim added that there will be a tender on Egypt-Saudi Arabia’s tender of electrical interconnection cables project lines later this month. Soon after, the Transgrid Solutions consultant will set preparations for the technical specifications of the tender.
The winning company will connect an antenna line at a length of 450km, starting from Badr City power station to Nabq City switch station, in addition to an antenna line with a length of 850km from the switch station east of Medina power station, passing through the Tabouk station.
He mentioned that auctions related to the electrical connection adapters’ tender will open 17 October and that companies Alstom, ABB, and Siemens have all applied for the tender, and their offers will be analysed in coordination with the Saudi side.
The winning company takes over establishing stations for AC adapters, with a constant voltage of 500kV in Badr City, and Mafateeh station by connecting the wireless line with a submarine cable in Nabq.
The operation of the electric interconnection project with Saudi Arabia will start a trial period in mid-2017 to exchange 3,000 MW at peak time.
The project costs roughly $1.6bn. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Arab Fund for Economic Development, and the Islamic Development Bank are contributing by providing finances.
