Kuwait loans Bahrain $102m for power grid expansion

Unsplash/Andrey Metelev

The state-backed Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development will provide funding of KD31.3 million ($102 million) to expand Bahrain’s power network.

The loan will be used to expand the 400 kilovolt electricity transmission networks in Bahrain.

The project aims to increase the capacity and efficiency of electricity transmission networks and power trading through the Gulf’s interconnection network, the Kuwaiti fund said in a post on the messaging platform X, formerly Twitter.

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In September 2023, the fund provided a $570 million loan to the Gulf Electricity Interconnection expansion project, according to a local media report.

The concept for Gulf electricity interconnection was announced in December 1997, with the GCC Interconnection Authority established five years later to oversee the project’s creation, operation and maintenance, state-run Qatar News Agency reported.

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By the end of 2005, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain signed contracts to initiate the first phase of the GCC electrical interconnection project, with an investment cost exceeding $1 billion. The actual operation began in July 2009.

In 2018, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE committed up to $10 billion to support Bahrain’s financial stability.