Egypt and Sudan’s electricity grids were officially linked on Friday at a voltage of 220 KV, with operations beginning upon Khartoum’s wish, the Egyptian Cabinet announced on Saturday.

In an official statement, the Cabinet said the linkage aims to provide Sudan with capacity of up to 70 megawatts on the hour.

It said that work is underway to install necessary equipment at the Sudanese side’s plants, according to the statement, which would then be followed with the second phase of the linkage which would target supplying Sudan with a capacity of up to 300 megawatts.

The Cabinet affirmed Egypt’s affirmation of the depth of historic relations between Nile Valley nations.

On Friday, Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Mining said Egypt and Sudan’s electricity grids were officially linked with an initial capacity of 60 megawatts.

The testing took place on Friday with the extension of the grid to Sudan’s northern areas.

The electricity linkage between the two countries is 170km long, 100km of which is in Egyptian territory between Wadi Halfa and Toshki. The rest is in Sudan.

The capacity of the line is 100 MW at a voltage of 220 KV, which can be increased to 300 MW or more in the future.

The cost of the line on the Egyptian side is about $6.7 million and is funded by Egypt's Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy.

Egypt seeks to act as a regional electricity hub, exchanging electricity with nearby countries during peak demand and exporting electricity to countries in need.

The country already has existing electricity links with Libya and Jordan, with a scheduled plan with Saudi Arabia to establish a line with a capacity of 3,000 MW at 500 KV DC.