Energy

Elmed Project advances Europe-Africa power link

Terna, the company that manages the Italian national electricity transmission grid, led by Pasqualino Monti, and STEG, the Tunisian electricity and gas grid operator, have awarded Hitachi Energy, a global leader in electrification, a contract worth approximately €770 million (approx. US$893mn) for the construction of the converter stations for the Elmed project, the first electricity interconnection between Italy and Tunisia

The awarding of the contract for the converter stations marks the completion of the procurement process for the first high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine link between Europe and North Africa.

The tender, published in 2023 jointly by Terna and STEG in the Official Journal of the European Union, concerned the design, supply and construction of the converter stations for the interconnection. The project is one of the infrastructure initiatives included in the Mattei Plan for Africa, aimed at strengthening economic, energy and geopolitical partnerships between Europe and African countries.

The two infrastructures will be built in Italy at Partanna, in the province of Trapani, and in Mlaabi, in the Menel Temime area of Tunisia. The link, powered by advanced HVDC technology, will have a capacity of 600 MW and extend for approximately 220 km, mainly through submarine cable, reaching a maximum depth of around 800 metres in the Strait of Sicily.

Hitachi Energy will provide the HVDC solution, combining its expertise in HVDC converter valves, its MACH digital control platform, power transformers and high-voltage switchgear. The company will also deliver system studies, design and engineering, supply, installation supervision and commissioning services. The project will leverage its experience gained through the successful delivery of some of the world’s largest and most significant interconnection projects.

Other consortium members, including D’Agostino Costruzioni Generali S.p.A. for the Partanna station and Orascom Construction SAE for the Mlaabi station, will mainly undertake civil works, electromechanical installations and auxiliary systems.

Representing a significant step towards greater interoperability between European and North African electricity systems, Elmed comes as governments and transmission system operators worldwide accelerate investment in transmission infrastructure. These developments are supporting the move towards fully electrified energy systems capable of integrating renewable energy sources at scale, strengthening cross-border interconnections and improving energy security.

Elmed is a major infrastructure project designed to strengthen energy security and integrate electricity systems between Europe and North Africa, aligning with energy transition and market integration objectives under the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC).

The project, which is strategically important for Tunisia, has the full support of Tunisian authorities and forms part of the country’s national vision to strengthen energy security, promote regional electricity market integration and support the energy transition.

Elmed also supports the European Commission’s REPowerEU objectives of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and achieving decarbonisation targets, primarily through diversified energy supplies and increased renewable energy development.

With a total investment value of €1.42 billion (approximately US$1.65bn), the electricity link has received €307 million (approximately US$356 million) from the European Commission through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant programme managed by CINEA. For the first time, the European Union has financed a project involving a non-member country, highlighting the strategic importance of the interconnection.

The project is also supported on the Tunisian side by additional European and international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and KfW.

Gensets working in Algeria (Image source: FPT)

FPT, a brand of Iveco Group N.V., and its distributors Bimotor and Avoni Industrial, joined Green Power Systems to power one of Algeria’s largest agro-industrial projects

The new facility is set to transform powdered milk production in the North African country.

The project, worth US$3.5bn and cofounded by the Algerian National Investment Fund and Qatari dairy producer Baladna Q.P.S.C., involves the construction of one of the world’s largest integrated dairy farm and powdered milk facility, spanning 117,000 hectares of agricultural land, and designed to support 270,000 dairy cows.

Located in Algeria’s Adrar province, the agro-industrial facility is scheduled to start production in late 2027.

Once fully operational, it expected to produce up to 100,000 tonnes of powdered milk per year, meeting about 50% of Algeria’s needs.

The gensets provided by Green Power Systems and powered by FPT engines will play a key role in feeding the dairy cows and a huge non-stop irrigation project — a challenging assignment with temperatures often exceeding 40° C for over 130 days a year.

In total, Green Power Systems delivered 50 GP330 S/I-A generator sets powered by FPT CURSOR 13 engines, providing up to 330 kVA, suitable for round-the-clock operation of irrigation systems in extreme conditions.

The FPT-powered Green Power Systems will support central pivot irrigation systems, a crop irrigation method in which the equipment rotates around a central pivot and crops are irrigated using sprinklers, thus creating circular irrigated area centred on the pivot.

Less labour-intensive and more water-efficient, this irrigation method is particularly effective in large plots of arid land and can rapidly transform them into agriculturally productive zones.

“Being part of a such a large-scale project, meant to improve Algeria’s food security and to create about 5,000 local jobs, is both a great honour and a great responsibility,” said Vittorio Bertalli, head of sales EMEA at FPT.

“But we are confident that our CURSOR 13 engines, together with hi-tech Green Power Systems products, will once again live up to the most demanding expectations.”

The CURSOR 13 is designed to deliver robust performance and optimised fuel efficiency for power generation applications, ranging from unregulated to Stage V / Tier 4 Final emissions standards.

Engineered with an electronically controlled unit injector, it ensures precise power delivery, rapid load response, and consistent fuel optimisation under all operational conditions.

The G-Drive configuration provides a ready-to-integrate solution, while highly regulated versions incorporate an ATS pack with patented Hi-eSCR2 technology, enabling advanced emissions reduction without compromising performance.

The engine offers 50/60 Hz frequency switching capability, facilitating inventory management for customers and is designed to maximise uptime and minimise maintenance requirements.

“Green Power Systems’ participation in this project further confirms its role as a reliable international partner in the supply of power generation solutions for large-scale agro-industrial and infrastructure applications,” said Flavio Faggiolini, export area manager for Green Power Systems.

“In projects of this magnitude, power continuity is essential to ensure the proper functioning of the entire infrastructure. The collaboration with FPT Industrial contributed to delivering a solution aligned with the reliability requirements of the operational context.”

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GE Vernova drives Africa's industrialisation with integrated power

On-site power for Angolan cold-storage facility 

GE Vernova aims to enable African industries to scale with absolute precision by integrating sustainable energy generation, advanced electrification systems, and sophisticated digital decarbonisation tools.

GE Vernova Inc. demonstrated its commitment to the continent’s economic transformation at the Africa Energy Forum, held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 17 June 2026

Aligning with the event’s central theme, ‘Building Africa's industrialized Future’, the company showcased a comprehensive portfolio of advanced technologies. These innovations are engineered to translate large-scale infrastructure ambitions into tangible operational realities, thereby accelerating Africa's industrialisation and long-term economic growth.

GE Vernova maintains that achieving success in this new industrial era requires a strictly holistic approach, bridging the existing gap between power generation and industrial application. The company aims to enable African industries to scale with absolute precision by integrating sustainable energy generation, advanced electrification systems, and sophisticated digital decarbonisation tools. This integrated strategy ensures that energy provision remains a reliable, affordable, and sustainable foundation for economic transformation.

A key focal point was demonstrating how digital intelligence is accelerating the energy transition. In North Africa, the Tunisian state utility, STEG, identified a strategic opportunity to evaluate GE Vernova's CERius platform. This sophisticated solution integrates artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and digital twin technology to create a comprehensive digital framework for emissions management. By transitioning from hardware-heavy monitoring towards a streamlined, software-driven framework, STEG is gaining the real-time, auditable emissions data critical for aligning with stringent international standards.

This innovative digital approach has undergone validation at the Sousse B power plant, confirming its operational effectiveness. Beyond achieving a high degree of consistency in emissions monitoring, STEG anticipates this software-driven shift will reduce related investment and maintenance costs by up to fifty per cent. By enhancing traceability, this initiative directly supports Tunisia's ambitious electricity export strategy to Europe. It proves compliance with the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and demonstrates that data-driven decarbonisation is a powerful catalyst for regional economic growth.

Alongside digital innovation, GE Vernova strongly emphasised that as the African continent accelerates its energy transition, the focus must shift from merely adding capacity to confirming that grid infrastructure is inherently stable and resilient. To support this argument, the company released a new whitepaper entitled, “Spain's 2025 Blackout Experience: Grid Firming Needs for Developing Power Systems with High-Renewable Penetration”. The paper's core recommendation is that future grids must be engineered specifically for fundamental resilience, rather than just basic energy delivery.

GE Vernova encourages African nations to prioritise grid stability from the outset. By applying lessons learned from the Iberian Peninsula, developing power systems can become as reliable as they are sustainable. The company advocates for integrating flexible, grid-forming technologies, such as aeroderivative gas turbines, synchronous condensers, and advanced power electronics. By explicitly valuing grid-support services, Africa can leapfrog traditional infrastructure hurdles. Strategic guidance is further mapped out in another whitepaper, “Ensuring Power System Stability in an Evolving Electrical Grid”.

Joseph Anis, president and CEO of GE Vernova's Gas Power business in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, stated, "Building Africa's industrial future starts with getting the fundamentals right: power that is reliable, sustainable, and ready to scale. A modern, stable grid is the backbone of this vision. Our goal is to provide a complete toolkit - from the AI that manages decarbonization to the grid technology that keeps the system stable - and to partner with African leaders to make that future a reality."

Building upon over 125 years of collaboration across the continent, GE Vernova continues to support Africa's energy evolution. The business is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and supported by approximately 85,000 employees globally, and brings over 130 years of broader experience to tackling global challenges. Through its deep-rooted continental presence, the purpose-built global energy company remains actively committed to fostering the technical self-sufficiency required to power the next generation of industrial growth.