Iraq’s Minister of Electricity Ziad Ali Fadel and Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman agreed on Wednesday to advance electrical grid interconnection project between the two countries, state-run Iraqi News Agency reported.

The two ministers agreed to speed up the electrical interconnection project and expand the interconnection point at Arar in northern Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity official spokesman Ahmed Musa said.

The two countries had signed the agreement to link their grids in July 2022. The project involves the development of a 400 kV transmission interconnection between Arar in Saudi Arabia and Yusufiya near Baghdad with a length of 435 km and power transfer capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW), according to media reports.

The Iraqi minister also highlighted the proposed partnership project with Saudi’s ACWA Power to build a 1-gigawatt (GW) solar power plant in Iraq.

On 4 April 2023, TotalEnergies had said in a press statement that in agreement with Iraqi authorities, it will invite ACWA Power to develop a 1 GW solar power plant to supply electricity to the Basrah regional grid.

Additionally, Fadel also expressed interest in benefitting from Saudi Arabia’s successful experience in installing meters and reducing energy losses.

(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)