India and Saudi Arabia have taken another crucial step towards closer energy cooperation, with officials from both countries reviewing a proposed electricity transmission link and exploring wider collaboration in the power sector.
The discussions took place during a virtual meeting between Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary of India's Ministry of Power, and Nasser Al-Qahtani, Saudi Arabia's Assistant Minister of Energy for Electricity Affairs, on October 19, according to India's Ministry of Power.
Both parties reviewed progress on the planned electricity connection and identified the way forward to advance the initiative. This is part of an agreement India and Saudi Arabia signed in October 2023 to lay the foundation for collaboration on electrical interconnection. The broader agreement also covered clean energy, green hydrogen, and supply chain resilience.
An electricity connection between the countries would facilitate cross-border electricity exchange. The project's viability would depend on many factors, including commercial ones. Earlier reports put the proposed undersea link at around 2,100 kilometers, with a potential transmission capacity of 3 gigawatts and an estimated cost of USD 9 billion. These figures reflect previous project assessments and were not confirmed as final decisions in the latest official update.
Saudi Arabia also expressed interest in further developing cooperation on extra-high voltage transmission systems. Extra-high voltage technology transfers huge volumes of electric power over long distances and is vital to modern power grids. The discussion also covered how to integrate more renewable energy sources into electricity grids. As solar and wind power grow, managing variable power flow becomes harder.
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Rising electricity demand from expanding data centers was another concern. These data centers provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services and need large amounts of power.
Saudi Arabia also indicated a desire to change the grid code to meet evolving power-system needs. The grid code is a collection of technical guidelines for interconnection and proper functioning of electricity systems. Although the proposed project has seen no developments, this suggests that the India-Saudi Arabia energy relationship has moved far beyond conventional energy transactions.