Egypt to start first phase of electricity interconnection with Sudan within three weeks electricity exchange capacity with Jordan, Libya to reach 1,000MW
Egypt will start the first phase of the electricity interconnection project with Sudan with a capacity of 100MW within three weeks. Government sources informed Daily News Egypt that the country has completed 96% of installations and construction work of the project with only conductors left to be installed. The minister of electricity has instructed to complete all operating tests before the end of January 2019. Performance and operating tests shall be conducted daily for a period of two to three weeks. After the tests are completed, the production will be linked to the electrical grid and other stages of the project will follow successively. India's Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is implementing the overhead double circuit transmission line. The connection begins from the Toshka-2 transformer station to Arqin station in Sudan on 220kV in the first phase then 500kV in the second phase. The government seeks to complete the electricity linkage project with Sudan as soon as possible, as Egypt is keen to support African and Nile Basin countries to meet their electricity needs. In parallel, Egypt agreed to request Jordan and Libya to increase the exchange of electricity capacity to 1,000MW, up from 770MW. The electricity ministry sources told Daily News Egypt that the value of energy is calculated based on the price of foreign currency, the time of exchange, and the price of fuel used in the production, and the increase of the electrical capacity with Jordan is different from upgrading the voltage of electrical lines from 220 to 400 kV, which allows the possibility of exchanging electricity with Jordan up to 2,000MW. As for the electrical connection with Libya, the 200 kV lines will allow the exchange of 220MW and is expected to increase within two months. The relations between Egypt, Jordan, and Libya are witnessing positive development and remarkable progress in all fields, especially in the fields of energy. According to the sources, the ministry of electricity aims to increase electricity interconnection with its neighbouring countries to about 2,000MW, starting next year, especially after achieving a surplus in production.
