Integration of Electricity Networks in the Arab World : Regional Market Structure and Design
The Arab countries have enjoyed sustained economic growth in recent years, and the high economic growth has triggered a rapid increase in energy demand, particularly for electricity. Besides enabling energy imports, interconnected power networks im...
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| Format: | Energy Study |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/12/19777005/middle-east-north-africa-integration-electricity-networks-arab-world-regional-market-structure-design http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19329 |
| Summary: | The Arab countries have enjoyed
sustained economic growth in recent years, and the high
economic growth has triggered a rapid increase in energy
demand, particularly for electricity. Besides enabling
energy imports, interconnected power networks impart a
series of additional benefits such as improved system
reliability, reduced reserve margins, reactive power
support, and energy exchanges that take advantage of daily
and seasonal demand diversity and disparities in marginal
production costs. As a result, a world-class electricity
supply system can be achieved with much lower capital
expenditures and ongoing expenses than will otherwise be
attainable on an individual-country basis. The regional
power interconnection of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),
allows electricity exchange among its six member states:
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), and Oman under an agreement signed in 2009.
The interconnection is targeted at sharing capacity reserve
and improving supply reliability, which will reduce the need
for investment in new generation capacity. This study, which
focuses on the development of the institutional and
regulatory framework for electricity trade in the Arab
world, is one of three currently being carried out by the
League of Arab States (LAS) on the development of regional
electricity markets (REMs): part one: study of
interconnections of electrical systems in the Arab world;
part two: study of electricity-gas trade among the Arab
countries; and part three: study of institutional and
regulatory frameworks. This study focuses on the
institutional and regulatory aspects of cross-border trade
and electricity market integration among the 22 LAS member
countries, and between the Arab countries and potential
neighboring markets. This study comprises two phases. Phase
one, is main report (volume one), examines regional market
structure and design. Phase two (volume 2) examines
principles of market regulations and legal arrangements
including a draft road map for a transition path toward
market integration and governance documentation including
drafts memorandum of understanding, general agreement,
general pan Arab electricity market agreement, and regional
grid code. |
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