The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) decided to further postpone the opening of financial and technical envelopes for the Egypt-Saudi Arabia electricity interconnection project to April 2017. The project had previously been postponed for one month pending a senior visit from the Saudi side, reported Egypt Oil & Gas.
Official Egyptian sources mentioned that the transfer stations bid in Madina, Tabuk, and Badr will be released from the Saudi side by 16th of April instead of the 16th of March. EETC additionally postponed the bid on Badr and Nabaq overhead lines , which will be released from the Egyptian side by 19th of April, instead of 19th of March.
The winning company will establish an air-transmitter line of 450 km from Badr City transformer station to Nabq station, as well as an 850 km aero transmission line between Nabq station through Tabuk transformers to East Madina station.
The operation of the electric interconnection project with Saudi Arabia will start a trial period in 2019 to exchange 3,000 MW at peak time, reported Daily News Egypt.
The project costs about $1.6bn, with the Egyptian side amounting to $600m. The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Islamic Development Bank, and the resources of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, will contribute to the project’s funding along with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
The Egyptian government is eager to implement this move to exploit the current surplus electricity production , which amounts to 4,000MW with expectations to increase to 8,000MW after the commercial operation of the new plants in Beni Suef, Borollos and the New Administrative Capital.
