The Saudi Electricity Company and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company have contracted a consortium led by Hitachi ABB Power Grids for the first large-scale HVDC interconnection in the Middle East and North Africa.
The HVDC interconnection will transport up to 3,000 MW of electricity at 500 kV along 838 miles (1,350 km) using overhead power lines and a subsea cable across the Red Sea between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Arab Republic of Egypt.
The project is worth several hundred million dollars, the company said in a press release.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids will be supplying three HVDC converter stations located at Medina and Tabuk in KSA, and Badr in Egypt. The manufacturer will also be providing system studies, design and engineering, transformers, valves, high-voltage equipment, technical advisory, commissioning and service, in collaboration with two consortium partners – Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works in KSA and Orascom Construction in Egypt.
The HVDC link is expected to give Egypt access to the interconnected power grids of the Arabian Gulf, and KSA access to those of North Africa, whilst strengthening grid resilience and power supply security. Both countries have ambitious carbon-neutrality targets.
In the longer term, the link has the potential to be part of a more broadly interconnected energy system with Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, allowing the exchange of solar power from the south and east with wind and hydropower from the north, the company said in a press release.
Source: Hitachi ABB Power Grids