The Media Center of the Council of Ministers stated, in a report on Monday, that there are plans to connect electricity between Egypt and Libya, Egypt and Sudan, in addition to a future Egyptian project for electrical interconnection with North African countries.
Connecting with Libya and Sudan
The Egyptian government plans to increase the volume of electricity exported to Libya by 12 times the current capacity of electrical interconnection between the two sides, according to the Egyptian report.
The report explains that studies are underway to increase the capacity of the electric line between Cairo and Libya from 150 megawatts currently, to 2000, describing the project as “a first stage to complete the electrical connection between North African countries as a whole.”
The government report revealed that the capacity of the interconnection line between Egypt and Sudan reached 80 megawatts at the start of its operation in April 2020, and there is a study to increase its capacity to 300 megawatts, after the completion of the installation of the necessary electrical missions.
He explained that the existing electrical connection between Egypt and Sudan has reached a length of 170 km, 100 km on the Egyptian side and 70 km on the Sudanese side.
Libya Gate
An Egyptian government source said, in an exclusive interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that there is joint coordination between North African countries and some of them regarding the future implementation of electrical interconnection projects, explaining that strengthening the capacity of the “Egyptian-Libyan” line will pave the way for additional discussions to achieve connectivity with other countries. The region, so that Libya would be the gateway to the electrical connection between Egypt and African countries.
The source indicates that after strengthening the “current line”, the linkage with the countries of the Maghreb “Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco”, and even the state of Mauritania in the future, will be studied, explaining that the matter may take years to achieve, but it is a project that is being worked on on the ground, with the support of the political leadership. And amid a welcome from the countries of the region.
Arab Connection dream
Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, former assistant foreign minister, says that the Egyptian state is interested in achieving “electrical interconnection”, not only with North Africa, but has been working since the 1990s to achieve connectivity with Arab countries.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia, Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi explains that Egypt will become the gateway that will connect the African continent represented by North African countries, and several countries that Egypt seeks to achieve electrical connectivity with on the continent, the Arab countries in the Gulf and Northwest Asia, and the countries of Europe, explaining that this will represent what can be described as the “energy market”.
The Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister indicates that Egypt had previously submitted proposals for the “Arab interconnection”, and submitted to the African Union summit in February 2021 a proposal for electrical interconnection with North African countries, which was ratified and included in the final list in the group of transregional projects.
energy surplus
Hafez Salmawy, the former head of the Egyptian Electricity Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency and a professor of energy engineering, says that the electrical interconnection projects achieve broad economic and political benefits for countries, starting with the different peak times in electrical consumption between countries and some of them, which allows the exchange of surplus energy between countries that suffer from a deficit. at a time, and the country that has a surplus at that time.
Salmawy added, in an exclusive interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that Egypt already has electrical interconnection networks with many countries such as Jordan, the Gaza Strip, Sudan and Libya, and plans to further expand.
The professor of energy engineering indicated that there are proposals for linking with the Arab Gulf states through Iraq to reach the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
