Minister of State for Electricity and Water Affairs Dr. Abdul-Hussain bin Ali Mirza said that the "Gulf electricity connection is deemed the greatest accomplishment of GCC Ministers of Electricity.
The Minister added that "As regards the Gulf electricity connection exists between all six member countries there are cables extended; and, should there be any disruption or snag in electricity supply in any one of these countries this could automatically be offset by supply from other countries".
Dr. Mirza in his statement today on the side-lines of the Economic Integration (Challenges vs. Solutions) Forum said that statistics indicate that from July 2009 and up until now, the GCC countries could avoid 1073 power cuts thanks to the pan-GCC Electricity Linkage.
The Minister added that the GCC countries are now working on the finalization of the second phase of the Gulf Linkage in terms of the commercial phase of exportation of electricity from GCC countries. Whenever one country has surplus electricity supply they can sell it to another country in need thereof.
The Minister said that the GCC Ministers of Electricity are working on this major phase which will provide huge economic benefits to all member countries. He added that all GCC countries by virtue of this electricity supply linkage should be able in future to provide electric power supply to the General Secretariat and to the Electricity Supply Authority as an obligation from their side. At the most recent meeting of GCC Ministers of Electricity hosted in the State of Kuwait, each GCC-member country submitted its anticipated capacity available in 2018-2019, he revealed.
The Minister concluded that after the commercial phase of the Gulf Linkage, we shall move to the phase of the pan-Arab linkage followed by the Arab-European Linkage, pointing out that Europe needs electricity in the wintertime meanwhile the GCC countries need electricity in the summertime and therefore, we will can supply them with electricity in the winter and they can supply us with electricity in the summer.