Saudi Arabia
's
cabinet will likely review next month a $1.5 billion project linking the power
grids of the kingdom with
Egypt
,
Saudi water and electricity minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen said Wednesday.
"The project will be reviewed by the cabinet by February," Mr.
Hussayen told reporters in
Abu Dhabi
.
The project, which aims to exchange 3,000 megawatts of electricity between the
two power-hungry countries through direct-current electrical lines, was
initially expected to start trial operations in 2015.
It has been severely delayed due to the political upheaval in
Egypt
,
despite the North African country's desire to push the project forward,
according to people aware of the situation.
Egypt
's
electricity ministry said last year the project was expected to move faster
after the new cabinet in
Egypt
was
appointed.
Saudi Electricity Co. (5110.SA), the largest listed utility among the Gulf Arab
states, and Egyptian Electricity Holding Co. will each finance, own and operate
parts of the grid in their respective countries.
Both
Saudi Arabia
and
Egypt
had
expected the construction of the mega project to start in 2012.
Egypt
plans
to send
Saudi Arabia
electricity through the connection in the afternoons and the kingdom will send
electricity to
Egypt
in
the evenings, taking advantage of the difference in the countries' peak usage
hours.
Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's biggest economy, has seen its power
requirements rise rapidly in recent years as its population grew and the
government spent oil revenues on new industries and infrastructure to diversify
the local economy away from hydrocarbons.
The kingdom needs to invest 500 billion Saudi riyals ($133.3 billion) in
electricity generation and distribution over the next 10 years to meet the growing
demand. It is also studying a plan to export electricity to European markets
during the winter when the kingdom's power demands are low, and import it
during the summers when the country has peak load.
N�Roa` X�black;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EL;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'>Russia
in
2010 to build the first power plant at Akkuyu in the southern
Mersin
province.
China
,
Japan
,
South
Korea
and
Canada
are
competing to win the Turkish tender for the second plant, to be built near the
Black
Sea
city of
Sinop
.