A project to link the electricity networks of Egypt and Saudi Arabia is moving ahead and will be completed in mid-2025, an official was quoted on Monday as saying.

Phase 1 of the Saudi-Egyptian Electricity Interconnection project will cost around $1.8 billion and trasfer 1,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, said Mansour Abdel Ghani, a spokesman for Egypt’s Electricity and Renewable Energy Ministry.

“This is a strategic project and an historical step for cooperation between the two countries,” Abdel Ghani told Egypt’s Addustour newspaper.

“This giant project will largely contribute to achieving sustainable development targets in Egypt…it is progressing according to set timetables,” he added.

Abdel Ghani said the two countries have recently agreed to form a joint committee to work for “removing all financial, technical and administrative” obstacles for the project, adding that phase 1 will be commissioned in July 2025.

He said the project, which involves the exchange of 3,000 MW of electricity between the two nations, includes the construction of three large high-load substations near the Western Saudi Medina city, Tabuk in Northwest Saudi Arabia and in Badr City East of Cairo.

“A consortium of three companies are working on this project…we can say nearly 60 percent of the project has been completed,” he added.

In 2021, the project was awarded to a consortium led by Hitachi Energy and comprising Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works (SSEM) and Orascom Construction.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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