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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Power across the Gulf
By Nevine Khalil
Egypt and Jordan put in place this week the cornerstone for a vast electricity network, which will link Africa, Asia and Europe by 2002.
President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II inaugurated the connection between the power systems of the two countries on Tuesday, first at Taba in Egypt and then at Aqaba in Jordan. During brief ceremonies along the two coastlines of the Gulf of Aqaba, the two leaders uncovered plaques and pressed the buttons that officially launched the linkage between the Egyptian and Jordanian electric networks. The exchange of electric power between the two countries had already begun in February.
Embarking on his first trip abroad since his accession to the throne last month, King Abdullah arrived in Taba aboard a medium-sized white yacht for the ceremony and brief talks with Mubarak. After the ceremony, the two leaders held discussions on bilateral and regional issues and then crossed the Gulf of Aqaba by sea for celebrations on the Jordanian side.
Work on the project began in 1996, costing $229 million -- $80 million for the Jordanians, and the rest for Egypt. The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) footed the bill for the project, which is marked by two technical achievements. The scheme features the highest existing electricity pylons stretching for 400km across the Taba mountains to link the Suez power substation to another substation in Taba, as well as the deepest submergence below water of a 13km power cable, between Taba and Aqaba, at a depth of 850m. The total expected electric capacity to be exchanged between Egypt and Jordan will reach 130MW in the first stage, but will increase to 350MW after the completion of the connection with the other countries.
The Egyptian-Jordanian connection constitutes the first link in the Five Countries Interconnection Project (FCiP) between Egypt, Jordan, Syria-Lebanon, Turkey and -- at a later stage, when political conditions improve -- Iraq. Although originally scheduled to become operational in 1997, officials now say that the FCiP will not be completed before the end of 1999. The Turkish part of the project is funded by the European Investment Bank.
Electric interconnection allows for cost reduction as well as greater reliability. By sharing the reserve margins between electric systems, countries will not need to build as many generating stations on their territories. And the exchange of electric energy in normal and emergency circumstances should improve the economies of national power systems. The linkage will also allow for the diversification of the types of fuel used in energy production.
The second step in the three-phase mega-project aimed at linking African, Asian and European power grids is to connect Egypt with the Maghreb states and Spain through the Mediterranean Sea Power Pool Project. This will join the grids of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Spain. The Egyptian-Libyan link became operational in October 1998, and the power grids of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco have been linked up already. The Libyan-Tunisian connection is to be finalised by the end of this year, and the underwater connection between Morocco and Spain will be completed by 2002.
A third power grid scheme -- the Pan-Arab Interconnection Project, linking Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states -- is currently under study. Already, member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council have agreed to link their power grids, and it is expected that they will eventually connect through Jordan with the FCiP.
Egypt, considered the biggest producer of electricity in Africa, is also studying plans to join an electric network connecting 14 African countries. The project will mainly draw on the energy potential of the Inga River in the Congo to supply the African countries with electricity, while marketing the surplus in Europe.
A conspicuously missing partner in such important regional infrastructure projects is Israel, which, since the election of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has become increasingly isolated among its Arab neighbours. At regional economic conferences sponsored by the World Economic Forum, Israel was expected to become integrated with its neighbours through economic projects and agreements, but plans have fallen behind schedule, and in some cases been frozen, since 1996. These plans, which called for Israel to join the regional power network, came up for detailed discussion at the second Middle East/North African economic conference (MENA II) in Amman in 1995.
A source at the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity told Al-Ahram Weekly that negotiations for forging a link with Israel "have been on hold for almost three years because of the stalemate in the peace process". Under the current circumstances, the source said, it was unrealistic to expect a country such as Syria to agree to being connected to Israel, even through electricity pylons. The source added that a link with Israel "will come, perhaps, at a later stage", through Jordan and the FCiP network.
