CAIRO, June 15 (MENA) - The Cabinet's Media Center highlighted the country's remarkable leap in renewable energy production and establishment of a strong and integrated infrastructure over the past years that has contributed to encouraging local and foreign investments in the energy sector and supporting Egypt's status as a regional energy hub.

In a number of infographics published Sunday by the Media Center on its social media platforms shedding light on Egypt's serious steps towards transforming itself into a regional energy hub, the infographics reviewed the progress of electricity interconnection projects with Arab, African and European countries, most notably the interconnection project with Saudi Arabia for representing a strategic step towards regional electricity grid integration and enhancing energy security.

The infographics highlighted international praise for Egypt's electricity interconnection projects. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that the joint electricity interconnection project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia; a large-scale high-voltage direct current (HVDC) project, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. It expects this interconnection to enable energy exchange with a capacity of up to 3,000 megawatts.

For his part, the former Swedish ambassador to Egypt said, the electrical interconnection between Egypt and Europe is the optimal path for progress in the energy sector and will benefit the economies of both Egypt and Europe.

The US International Trade Administration (ITA) also said Egypt is implementing several electrical interconnection projects with Jordan, Sudan and Libya as part of its plan to become a regional energy hub. It is also working to complete interconnection projects with Saudi Arabia, Greece and Cyprus, as well as a project to connect Iraq via Jordan.

Meantime, the increase in nominal capacity as a result of national projects figured high in the infographics .Total nominal capacity increased by 86.6%, reaching 59,700 megawatts in 2023/2024, compared to 32,000 megawatts in 2013/2014. The increase in nominal capacity is much greater than the increase in peak load—which increased by 41%, reaching 36.8 thousand megawatts in 2023/2024, compared to 26.1 thousand megawatts in 2013/2014—turning the deficit in the national grid into a reserve, helping export electricity and transform Egypt into a regional energy hub.

The Egyptian-Saudi electricity interconnection represents a strategic step toward a unified Arab grid, according to the infographics. Contracts for the project were signed in October 2021, extending from Badr City in Egypt to Medina, passing through Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. The project's implementation rate on both the Egyptian and Saudi sides reached 76.9% by May 2025. The first phase of the interconnection capacity reaches 1,500 megawatts, while the second phase reaches 3,000 megawatts, it said.

The most significant gains achieved by the Arab electricity interconnection are focused on increasing the reliability of the grids by reducing the repercussions of forced outages. It also works to protect the grids of the interconnected countries from the risks of total or partial power outages, achieving economic returns and exchanging technical expertise through actual operation and joint operational and planning committees.

The infographics said Egypt is the gateway to regional and international electricity interconnection, through the electricity interconnection with Sudan, which will have a capacity of 80 megawatts when it begins operation in 2020. The second phase is currently underway to reach a capacity of 300 megawatts. In the same context, the infographics highlighted the electricity interconnection line with Libya, currently being studied for increasing its capacity to 2,000 megawatts.

Meanwhile, the electricity interconnection line with Jordan has a capacity of 550 megawatts, and an agreement was signed in March 2021 to increase its capacity to 2,000 megawatts.

Regarding electricity interconnection with European countries, involving Egypt/Cyprus/Greece electricity interconnection line, with the aim of exchanging electricity capacity up to 2,000 megawatts. The electricity capacity exchanged in the first phase of the electricity interconnection line with Greece also reached 3,000 megawatts and would reach 6,000 megawatts in its second phase. (MENA)

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