Greece’s Elica Mediterranean Electrical Interconnection (Elica) has invited interest from consultancies for studies on the Egypt-Greece (GREGY) power interconnector scheme, which aims to link Egypt’s grid to Europe via Greece.

The €4.2 billion (US$4.7 billion) project is being promoted by Elica, which is a subsidiary of Greece’s Copelouzos Group, and involves the construction of a 950km-long, 500kV bidirectional submarine cable with a capacity of 3GW.

The cable will provide a direct connection between Egypt and mainland Greece (Attica) without intermediate landing points, and the power to be transferred will come from 9.5GW of renewable energy projects that will be built and operated by Copelouzos Group in Egypt.

Elica is inviting interest for the scheme’s desktop study, which will determine the optimal routing of the submarine cable, as well as the comprehensive cost-benefit and technical analyses, all of which are seen as crucial to fast-track project implementation.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 31 May. The documents can be viewed here and here.

In late April, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed to partly fund the desktop study and analyses via a grant agreement.

About one-third of the power transmitted by the GREGY cable will be consumed in Greece, while one-third will be exported to neighbouring EU countries, with the aim of reducing natural gas consumption by 4.5 billion cubic metres a year. Another one-third will be used in Greece for the production of green hydrogen, of which a major portion will be exported to neighbouring EU countries.

The scheme is set to turn Greece into a clean energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean region and Southeastern Europe as well as enhance the security of supply in Egypt. The project is also in line with the Egyptian government’s policy to establish the country as a regional energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The GREGY project has been in development since 2008 and was recently included in the EU’s list of Projects of Common/Mutual Interest (PCI/PMI). It is also an EU Global Gateway flagship infrastructure scheme.

The scheme is seeing increased impetus following the EU’s decision to fully end its dependency on Russian energy, spurred by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the European Commission, the dependency on Russian energy imports leads to serious security and economic risks for the EU as Moscow has "continuously used existing energy supply as a weapon to threaten the stability and prosperity of the Union”.

In early May, the commission presented the REPowerEU Roadmap to the European parliament, which aims to further advance the EU's independence from Russian energy by phasing out gas, nuclear and oil imports to reduce risks of weaponisation of energy supplies and prevent Russia earning income from the EU.

Other planned interconnector projects that will link the European and North African grids include the 600MW Tunisia-Italy ELMED, 2GW Egypt-Crete-Greece EuroAfrica Interconnector and 3.6GW Morocco-UK Xlinks schemes.

Top photo: Rendering of underwater cable (© Oleh Bilovus | Dreamstime.com)