Egypt to Connect Electricity Network to Saudi Arabia

Egypt will connect its electricity network to Saudi Arabia, joining a system in the Middle East that has allowed neighbors to share power. The link will cost about US$1.6 billion, with Egypt paying about US$600 million, Egypt’s Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said Monday at a conference in Cairo.

Contracts to build the network will be signed in March or April, and construction is expected to take about two years, he said. Transmissions of electricity across borders in the region became possible in 2009, when a power grid connected Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

The aim of the grid is to ensure that member countries of the GCC can import power in an emergency. The grid could provide Egypt with a new source of export revenue because it currently has capacity to produce more electricity than it needs, Shaker said.