GCC electrical interconnection project yielding vital benefits

Muscat: Mohsen bin Hamad Al-Hadhrami, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gulf Interconnection Authority, participated in a ceremony for sharing of power through a grid between the city of Arar in the northern region of Saudi Arabia and the Yousifiyah region in Iraq, on Saturday.
The initial capacity of the electricity network will be 1,000 megawatts.
“The Gulf electrical interconnection project is one of the most important infrastructure interconnection projects approved by the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council states,” Mohsen bin Hamad Al Hadhrami, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gulf Interconnection Authority, said.
He added that this strategic project has given technical and economic benefits every year for the GCC countries. It gives support during emergency cases, thus sparing the networks of the GCC countries during electrical outages. This network helps by immediately  transferring the required energy through the electrical interconnection network that extends to a distance of approximately 1,050 km from Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman.
He stated that the project, since its operation until now, has supported approximately 2,700 cases, and has also contributed in achieving savings for the GCC countries ranging from $200 million to $300 million annually, and the cumulative savings for the GCC countries since the start of the project has reached about $3 billion.
He stressed that the project aims to meet part of the demand for electrical energy in the south of the Republic of Iraq.
This will be with about 500 megawatts of energy from the GCC countries through the Gulf electrical interconnection network as a first stage. The work on the project will take about 24 months.
The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jassim Al-Budaiwi said that the Gulf electrical interconnection project is one of the most important projects for linking the infrastructure among the GCC states.
This involves optical fiber networks, providing the foundations for the exchange and trade of electrical energy between member states in a way that serves the economic aspects, supports the reliability of electrical supply, and deals with emergency crises.