Janahi, said: “With the successful linking of the electricity grids of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, the member countries are close to achieving their goal of having a joint power grid for all six member states. The grid aims at guaranteeing an adequate supply of power even in emergencies and also reducing the cost of power generation in member countries. There will of course be other economic gains.”
The six GCC countries expect that the $1.4 billion venture would help them to reach the increasing power demand and avoid power outages. The different phases of the operations of the linking include the completion of the interconnection of the Qatar grid with Kuwait on July 20, 2009 and the commissioning of the first cycle of undersea cable between Bahrain and the main grid of GCCIA on July 21, 2009.
The first phase of the project also includes a double-circuit 400kV, 50Hz line from Al-Zour in Kuwait to Ghunan in Saudi Arabia with an intermediate connection at Fadhili in the Kingdom and associated substations and a back-to-back HVDC interconnection to the 380kV, 60Hz system at Fadhili.
Janahi added: “Now the work on the interconnection between the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman is under way and is scheduled to be completed in 2011.”
Under the final phase, the resulting two mega-grids will be linked. Saudi Arabia proposed to meet 40% of the first phase expenditure, Kuwait 36.5%, Qatar 13.5%, and Bahrain 10%.
The state-controlled power producer Saudi Electricity intends to invest $28bn in the next three years to reach the increasing demand in the Arab, which would add approximately 13,000MW of electricity and provide for a distribution system.
