Update on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) electricity grid system interconnection

This paper describes the development of the interconnection between the Gulf States (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman). The interconnection was justified based on reserve sharing between the systems but once built will provide the opportunity for trading electricity between the member countries. This paper also describes the principal components of the interconnection as well as some of issues which had to be addressed such as creation of the GCC Interconnection Authority, cost sharing and financing before the project could proceed towards implementation