‘Jordan exported 380 gigawatt hours of electricity to Egypt in 2014’

AMMAN — Jordan exported some 380 gigawatt hours of electricity to Egypt in 2014 as the Kingdom is signatory to an agreement to provide the North African country with surplus when needed, according to the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO).

In 2014, Jordan imported 20 gigawatt hours of electricity from Egypt, NEPCO Director General Abdul Fattah Daradkeh told The Jordan Times Tuesday.

In 1998, Jordan and Egypt signed a deal under which the power grids in both countries were connected, and started supplying each other with electricity when needed and surplus is available, he said in a phone interview.

“Since the beginning of 2015, we provided Egypt with one gigawatt hour of electricity,” Daradkeh added.

“Exporting electricity to Egypt or even importing it sometimes is in the interest of both countries. The agreement benefits both sides and helps ensure continuity of supply,” he noted.

Jordan has an electricity production surplus of about 25 per cent of the grid’s total capacity, according to the NEPCO director general.

The grid’s capacity currently stands at 3,850 megawatts (MW) and the maximum load registered during the recent polar front was 3,100MW, Daradkeh said.

“The cooperation between Egypt and Jordan in this regard is exceptional. Sometimes we take electricity from Egypt because it is cheaper than producing it in the Kingdom. It is a win-win situation,” he added.

Jordan recently said it had secured a $120 million deal with European investors to increase its electricity grid capacity by 1,000MW.

A tender will be floated soon as work on expanding the grid is expected to start in the first quarter of 2015, according to the Energy Ministry.