TUNIS - Tunisia has asked the European Union for funding to finance an electricity connection project between its country and Italy, called ELMED, within the scope of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). It was the director general for Electric Power and Energy Transition of the ministry of Industry, mining and Energy in Tunis, Belhassen Chiboub, who said this to the Tunisian press agency Tap. This comment came at the end of the third training session for journalists in the energy sector, specifying that this project, whose investment cost is estimated at 800 million euro, will be operational in 2027.
ELMED, which is managed by a partnership of companies Terna-Steg, foresees the use of an underwater high tension cable of 600 MW between Tunisia (Cape Bon) and Italy (Sicily). It will be part of an euro-Mediterranean electric grid connecting Europe and the countries in North Africa. This project, once completed, will allow Tunisia to meet its energy needs and to export the excess to the European market, said Chiboub recalling that the World Bank, on 13 September 2018, had approved a 12.5 million dollar loan for Tunisia to allow the financing of 5 technical feasibility studies for the ELMED project.
It will be 200 km long and completely "invisible", the work was included in the list of projects of common interest of the European Commission due to its strategic importance for secure and sustainable energy in both countries and for the realization of a European electric grid that connects the countries of North Africa among each other and with Europe, with a view to reach full market integration.
