History of MEDELEC
At the beginning of the 1990s, it became clear that an electric ring could gradually be created around the Mediterranean basin by developing interconnections between Mediterranean countries. With a large number of individual projects that lacked an overarching vision, countries ran the risk of one day ending up with a vast but unusable system. There was no organisation grouping together the entire Mediterranean electrical industry and offering a space for dialogue, reflection and coordination. On the initiative of UNIPEDE (which later became EURELECTRIC) and COMELEC, a “liaison committee” was officially created in 1992 under the name MEDELEC, grouping together all the different electricians’ associations in the Mediterranean basin at the time: UNIPEDE, EURELECTRIC and UCPTE (which later became UCTE) in the north; and COMELEC UAPTDE and UPDEA in the south.

The newly formed liaison committee’s first decision was to create a working group in partnership with UNIPEDE in order to set out the problems posed by this famous “Mediterranean ring”. An in-depth technical-economic study, carried out jointly by companies to the north, south and east of the Mediterranean, was completed in 1997 and was then followed in 2001 to 2003 by a (MEDRING) study co-financed to the tune of €2M by the European Union.

The committee’s work became more organised when EDF appointed Henri Persoz as Secretary General in 1997.
And now?

MEDELEC’s great achievement has been to act as a forum for exchanges and information sharing between different associations and companies in the Mediterranean region.

The various conferences that have been organised have always been a resounding success. Here are some examples:

1. 2000 – a conference in Djerba on the combined production of fresh water and electricity ;
2. 2003 – a conference in Rome on Medring
3. 2005 – a conference in Tunis on the electricity market between the Maghreb and Europe.
4. 2008 – a conference in Egypt where we will return to the important question of forming electricity markets, but this time in the entire Mediterranean region.

The association held its 15th meeting in Paris in April 2007. An extract from the agenda shows the range of subjects tackled:

And for tomorrow?
The achievement of an electric ring around the Mediterranean remains the main goal, although it has now been acknowledged that the ring will not necessarily be synchronised, and that back-to-back direct current links may be necessary. This infrastructure will enable the companies in the Mediterranean region to take full advantage of the main trends in the electricity world: protecting the environment, developing or renewing installed capacity, and increasing efficiency through liberalisation. And there certainly won’t be a lack of subjects to work on!
Just to keep you up to date, here is a list of the subjects that the association has on its agenda.