DOHA - (Xinhua) - The Qatar Fund for Development announced today (Monday) the signing of an agreement with the Electricity Interconnection Authority of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf to develop the Gulf electrical interconnection system and the connection to the southern Iraq grid.

The Fund said in a statement that this agreement comes with the aim of contributing to meeting part of the demand for electrical energy and filling the need for it, in addition to improving the performance and stability of the electrical network in the southern region of Iraq.

The statement indicated that this will be done through the establishment of a new transmission station with a capacity of 400 kilovolts from the Wafra station of the Interconnection Authority to the Al-Faw electricity transfer station in southern Iraq, which will enable the transmission of electricity from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to Iraq.

He pointed out that the implementation work is scheduled to start during this August, and that the connection will be operational in the summer of 2024.

The statement quoted the Director General of the Fund, Khalifa bin Jassim Al-Kuwari, as saying, "We seek together, in partnership with the Electricity Interconnection Authority of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, to extend electricity to our brothers in the Republic of Iraq."

Al-Kuwari added that the extension of electricity plays an essential and pivotal role in strengthening the vital basic sectors and supporting them to complete their work.

For his part, Ahmed bin Ali Al-Ibrahim, CEO of the Gulf Electrical Interconnection Authority , said that the electrical connection has achieved economic savings for the GCC countries of nearly $3 billion since the full operation of the project, while avoiding any major interruptions in the Gulf networks since the start of operation in 2009.

The project is being implemented by the Electricity Interconnection Authority of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, which was established in 2001 and owns and operates the Gulf electrical interconnection network. It is one of the most important infrastructure interconnection projects approved by the Cooperation Council.

The Gulf Electrical Interconnection Project has achieved its most important strategic goals represented in enhancing energy security, raising the level of reliability and safety of Gulf electrical systems, and its success in avoiding 100 percent of the GCC electricity networks for any partial or total outage by providing instantaneous support by transferring the required energy through the interconnection network. directly, according to the statement.