Saudi Arabia and Iraq have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to interconnect their power grids.

The MoU was signed by Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Adel Karim, and the Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, according to a tweet by the Saudi energy ministry on Tuesday.

Karim said that "the connection with Saudi Arabia will be completed within two years," adding that "the Iraqi market is open to Saudi companies."

On 2 December 2021, the Ministry of Electricity had announced that 88 percent of the work to connect Iraq to the GCC Grid had been completed.

The ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Moussa, told Iraq's Shafaq News Agency that the project's first phase would be ready by the summer of 2022 and will enable transmission of 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Iraq.

Saudi English language newspaper Arab News quoted Abdulaziz bin Salman saying that the agreement with Iraq forms part of the government's goal to make the Kingdom a regional electricity interconnection hub.

Work has already started on the Saudi-Egypt interconnection project, the Middle East and North Africa region's first large-scale HVDC interconnection, which would allow the two countries to exchange up to 3,000MW of electricity.

Last week, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency had reported that the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority is planning a joint interconnection project with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and Jordan's National Electric Power Company.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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