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The GCC has awarded 14 contracts worth $1.95 billion for the first phase of a planned regional power grid.
The power grids of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar will be linked in the first phase which is to be completed in three years. The remaining GCC states – the UAE and Oman – will join later.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA said contracts were awarded to Swiss engineering firm ABB and to its Saudi arm, Italian company Nexans and Canadian engineering-construction firm SNC Lavalin.
The project is expected to save about $3.5 billion in expenditures until 2028, said SPA, quoting the head of the power-grid body Saleh bin Hussein Al Awaji.
Among the contracts awarded, six 400 kV new power stations will be constructed at Kuwait (Al Zoor), Bahrain (Al Jasra), Qatar (Doha), and Saudi Arabia (Al Fadhili and Ghannan).
