Kuwaiti Grant to Support the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority
The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development signed a grant agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Interconnection Authority for an amount of 200,000 Kuwaiti dinars to finance a feasibility study for interconnecting with power grids outside the GCC framework. The Fund stated that the study aims to explore opportunities to expand the scope of the GCC power interconnection to include power networks in neighboring countries, thereby contributing to enhanced electricity exchange and supporting regional cooperation in the energy sector. This will be achieved by assessing the electricity needs of neighboring countries and evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of interconnecting with them.
The Fund added that the study will identify future expansion phases of the interconnection network, select the priority phase, examine available alternatives, and choose the most suitable option based on technical and economic criteria. It clarified that the study includes preparing a technical, economic, and environmental assessment of the proposed project, covering its main components, costs, implementation methods, and expected timeline, as well as analyzing the economic and social benefits that can be realized by member states and countries connected to the GCC system.
The Fund noted that it had previously provided three loans to the GCC Interconnection Authority to help finance the project to enhance the GCC power interconnection system and connect it to the southern Iraq grid, with a total value of 78 million Kuwaiti dinars. It further stated that a key component of these projects is the Al-Wafra power station in Kuwait, which represents one of the main elements of the GCC power interconnection system. The station holds particular importance due to its role in supporting the reliability of Kuwait’s power grid and enhancing its capacity to handle high loads by enabling electricity exchange and utilizing available surpluses from countries within the interconnection system.
