Egyptian contractors eye Jordan’s grid upgrade as Cairo and Amman plan to quadruple their power link

Egyptian contractors are lining up for work on Jordan’s power grid, while Cairo and Amman get ready to quadruple the capacity of the electricity link between them, a source at the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors tells EnterpriseAM. There’s no shortage of openings in Jordan’s grid upgrades, the source says, and first on the list is a new 400/132 kV substation in Aqaba worth an estimated USD 45 mn, which Jordan’s state grid operator NEPCO has put out to tender with bids due on 10 November.

The Aqaba job is a full package: design, supply, installation, commissioning, and civil works for the substation, along with a 400 kV gas-insulated station (a compact setup that encloses the equipment in gas so it takes up far less space) and the cables tying it into the existing network, the source says, adding that more projects are expected to follow.

Behind it all is a bigger upgrade to the link between the two grids. Egypt and Jordan will start feasibility studies next month on raising the capacity of their link to 2 GW from 500 MW today, a government source in the electricity sector tells us. The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development is footing the bill, some KWD 300k (c. USD 1 mn), and the upgrade would let the two grids trade more power and back each other up when supply runs tight, as part of a wider push to link Arab electricity markets.

The link could lead further. Jordan is Egypt’s gateway northeast, and a proposed subsea cable could eventually carry Egyptian power on to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. That would come on top of the 3 GW link with Saudi Arabia, which entered trial operations in September and is now slated for an official mid-November launch.

Syria and Lebanon are on contractors’ radar, too. The federation is hoping to secure a share of reconstruction work in both countries (including their power grids) through development agencies, which would also drive demand for Egyptian building materials, the federation source says. Syria alone faces a reconstruction bill of some USD 216 bn, and Egyptian businesses are already making the trip. A Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce delegation led by Ahmed El Wakil met President Ahmed Al Sharaa in January (watch, runtime: 11:16) and signed cooperation deals with its Syrian counterpart. Hassan Allam and Naguib Sawiris followed with their own meetings with Al Sharaa in Damascus this summer, a big step up from last year’s Syria reconstruction conference, which drew just one Egyptian company.

The diplomatic track is picking up as well. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met Syria’s finance minister on Friday to discuss boosting economic and financial ties and to prepare for his own upcoming visit to Damascus, he said on X, though he didn’t give a date for the trip.

Saudi Arabia is where the federation has made the most headway so far. It has registered a large number of its members to work on Saudi projects under terms agreed with the Saudi side, the federation source says, after Riyadh set up a fast track for top-tier Egyptian contractors in April to compete for some SAR 200 bn of projects.

Why the rush abroad: Contractors are getting a smaller slice of infrastructure work at home than in years past, the construction federation source says, and the numbers back that up. Fitch cut its growth forecast for the sector to 0.4% for FY 2025/26 from 5.6%, as the state shifted spending toward debt management under its IMF program, and construction activity shrank 0.3% in the first half of the fiscal year. The federation has been steering its members toward maintenance and operations contracts at home, and exporting their services is the other half of that plan.

What’s next: The interconnection studies kick off next month, and bids for the Aqaba substation are due on 10 November.