The Mediterranean Ring – an International Success Story As renewable energy resources are often in sites far away from the centers of industry and inhabitants, where the energy is consumed, it is essential to have an appropriate means to transport this energy. Electric energy is easily transported by cables and lines, however, such networks – called grid - were limited to an area of about 2000 x 2000 km, e. g. European grid.
Figure 7: Typical electricity demand pattern in Egypt during summer, peak about one hour after sunset.
Source: Ministry of Electricity and Energy, Egypt.
Figure 8: The Mediterranean ring, proposed 1987 by the Egyptian minister of electricity Maher Abaza and agreed upon with the prime minister of Turkey Algot Oezal, was decided in a conference held in Ankara for that purpose in 1988. The connection Egypt-Saudi Arabia was added in 2010. Source: Ministry of Electricity and Energy, Egypt and Author.
This is the case for KSA and Egypt. For that reason a connection between both countries is planned to swap 3000 MW in 2016 each day during the summer months. To overcome the distance of about 1400 km connecting the grids of KSA and Egypt, the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology is the best choice. This gives a supplemental advantage, the grids have different AC frequencies, in KSA it is 60 Hz and in Egypt it is 50 Hz. Thus a backto-back joint is not required as its purpose is fulfilled by the HVDC line. Principles and Criteria Just shifting the energy production to renewables may be insufficient if the implementation is not sustainable. For that reason the DESERTEC Foundation is creating - and continuously updating - a catalogue of sustainability criteria, starting with CSP projects, based on several principles upon which power production may be evaluated. A selection of principles and their criteria are summarized as follows: Principle - provision of security and distribution of electricity. Criteria:
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• Limited share of fossil fuel in yearly electricity production • Dispatchability • Minimized down-time • Local and national benefit • Interconnectivity and • Grid stability Principle - social responsibility and economic sustainability. Criteria: • Participation • Maximized involvement of local/regional economy • Profound consideration of socio-economic impacts Principle - environmental responsibility. Criteria: • Profound consideration of environmental impacts • Conservation of rare, threatened or endangered species and habitats • Minimized waste production. • Maximized use of renewable energy • Minimized use of water/optimum: neutral water balance • The power plant shall be responsibly decommissioned and materials shall be recycled after the operational period.
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This is the story how the European grid was extended to cover double as much area and embracing the Mediterranean with a ring to enable renewable energy from the vast resources of sun and wind in North Africa to be transported to Europe where they are needed. 1987 - Mr. Maher Abaza, minister of Electricity and Energy in Egypt, contacted Mr. Algot Özal, prime minister of Turkey. He suggested to expand the national grids in both countries and to connect them together and to the European grid. Mr. Özal found it a challenging idea and took action immediately. 1988 - Upon invitation of Turkey, 42 Islamic Countries, represented by the ministers of Energy, held a conference in Ankara; the project was accepted and recommended by all the members of this conference. 1989 - The Arab Fund for Investment declared that it will finance the project. 1992 - Start of the project with Arab fund financing. European Investment Bank participated in funding the Turkish part. 1994 - The portion from Italy to Turkey via Greece was chosen to go through the Adriatic Sea to avoid passing through the Balkan, as at that time political instability was expected. The European Union financed the Turkish part. 1998 - In October, a meeting was held in Rome between the North African ministers of Energy and the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek ministers of Energy and signed an agreement. This agreement envisaged the Mediterranean Ring with 400 kV cables. 2002 - The Mediterranean Ring is under construction, Africa is connected via Asia up to Syria and Morocco is connected to Spain with a marine cable of 400 kV. Interconnections between Syria-Turkey and TurkeyGreece as well as between Libya-Tunis are still under construction. Also the planned marine connection Tunis-Sicily-Italy has not yet started. 2003 - 1st and 2nd December, again in Rome, the ministers responsible for electricity and energy of the Mediterranean countries signed the final agreement to complete the ring and to add two more marine connections, AlgeriaSpain and Libya-Crete-Greece. Thus this Ring is a 400 kV interconnected system planned to be expanded to 600 kV direct current lines for low loss transportation of electricity.