Report: North African electric grid to be inter-connected before end of 1999

"The Libyan electric grid will be connected before end of the year to the Tunisian one and then to the Algerian and Moroccan ones, reported on Saturday the French daily "Le Monde."

In a story on the launching by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdallah of Jordan on March 16 of the first stage of the Africa-Asia electric network, the daily said the network is part of "the first regional economic development in the Middle East to inter-connect the Middle Eastern electric grid to that of Europe, with the exclusion of Israel and Iraq.

According to the source, the project has cost up to now $229 million mainly financed by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Its final cost is estimated at $600 million after the electric grids of Jordan will be connected to that of Syria, Turkey and Lebanon by 2000.

Simultaneously the African electric network will be connected to Asia and Europe and will enable them to import or export electricity and to adapt electricity production to consumption.

According to "Le Monde," at the present stage, Egypt, whose electricity output exceeds local consumption by 20%, will be exporting electricity to Libya. Before the end of this year, the Libyan network will be connected to the Tunisian and then to Algerian and Moroccan networks before reaching the Spanish and European ones.