GCC Countries Continue Establishing Power Grid Interconnection

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) was formed in 2001 to help improve and integrate the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

Yusef Ahmed Janahy, the chairman of the authority, said that the formation of the GCCIA was envisioned as the first step in making a regionally integrated electricity market where the consumers in the Gulf would be the ultimate beneficiaries.

The GCC Interconnection Grid will be developed in three phases:

• Phase I - interconnection of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. This is the GCC North Grid, which opened in December 2009.
• Phase II - interconnection of the independent systems in United Arab Emirates and Oman. This is the GCC South Grid.
• Phase III - interconnection of the GCC South Grid with the GCC North Grid. This phase will complete the interconnection of the six Gulf states.

Upon completion components of the GCC Grid will include:

• a double-circuit, 400-kilovolt (kV) line and associated substations from Salwa to Shuwaihat in United Arab Emirates
• a double-circuit, 220-kV line and associated substations from Al Ouhah, United Arab Emirates, to Al Waseet, Oman
• a single-circuit, 220-kV line and associated substations from Al Ouhah to Al Waseet

A parallel control center will be linked to each member country's national control center to achieve the following:

• assure the security of the interconnection
• control the access to the interconnection
• perform frequency and interchange regulation
• coordinate the operation of the interconnection
• perform transaction recording and billing

Because Saudi Arabia's network operates at 60 Hertz (Hz) and its Gulf neighbors operate at 50 Hz, asynchronous alternating-current interconnection was impossible. Areva T&D (Paris, France) stated that the only solution was to introduce high-voltage direct current (HVDC) into the grid, which involved the creation of a 1,800-megawatt (MW) HVDC back-to-back link configured as three separate 600-MW substations.

In May 2010, Areva T&D won a contract valued at $13 million for maintenance of GCCIA's HVDC substation in Al Fadhili, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, ABB Limited (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland) has agreed a service contract worth $8.3 million with GCCIA to provide maintenance for equipment and systems at the Gulf Interconnection Grid's newly constructed substations.

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