QatarEnergy announced in a statement that a special event held to mark the start of the implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ electrical interconnection project with the south of the Republic of Iraq.
The event was held in the city of Dammam, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This interconnection project, expected to be completed in late 2024, is the first to be implemented outside the electrical grid system of the GCC countries, and will meet some of the demand for electric power in southern Iraq with about 500 megawatts per hour.
It is funded by both the Qatar Fund for Development and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
The first phase of the GCC electrical interconnection project was inaugurated on 14 December 2009, connecting the electricity networks of the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Kingdom of Bahrain. This was followed by the UAE in 2011 and the Sultanate of Oman in 2014.
This strategic project has achieved important technical and economic benefits for the GCC countries, including annual savings of 200-300 million US dollars annually, with cumulative savings of approximately three billion US dollars since the commencement of operations.
