Iraq-GCC launch electrical grid interconnection project

Dammam (IraqiNews.com) – A special occasion to commemorate the beginning of the electrical connectivity project between Iraq and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council took place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Ziad Ali Fadhil, the Iraqi Minister of Electricity, and Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, the Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, attended the ceremony in Dammam. Members of the electrical and Water Cooperation Committee and key energy ministers from GCC nations working in the electrical sector also attended the event.

This interconnection project, which is scheduled to be finished in late 2024, will be the first to be executed outside of the GCC nations’ electrical grid system and will supply roughly 500 megawatts per hour of electricity to southern Iraq, helping to partially fulfill the region’s electricity demand. Both the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and the Qatar Fund for Development provide funding for it.

The Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) announced in February 2023 that five contracts for a whopping $220 million had been signed. A double circuit 400 kV transmission line will be built as part of the contracts, connecting the stations in Kuwait’s Wafra and southern Iraq’s Al Faw. This 295-kilometer-long energy transmission line with a transmission capacity of 1,800 MW will change the area’s power infrastructure.

On December 14, 2009, the first phase of the GCC electrical interconnection project was officially launched, linking the power networks of the States of Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. The UAE and the Sultanate of Oman came after this in 2011 and 2014. For the GCC nations, this strategic initiative has produced significant technical and financial benefits, including yearly savings of $200–$300 million and cumulative savings of almost $3 billion since operations began.