RIYADH, 21 July — Power generation in the Kingdom is expected to increase from 23,582 MW last year to 60,000 MW by 2023. This would require an investment of $115 billion to cope with the escalating need arising out of population surge, industrial expansion and the construction boom.
This was disclosed at a workshop on power conservation organized by the Ministry of Industry and Electricity at the weekend. In his presentation, Khaled Abdulrahman Al-Arfaj, Director of Research and Studies at the Saudi Electricity Company (Central Province), stressed the need for power conservation by rationalizing consumption and making use of high technology for cutting down the cost of power generation.
Calling upon consumers to minimize the use of electricity, he said they should also use insulating material in the construction of buildings to achieve the same goal. "Such an approach is in line with Islamic teachings that preach the importance of avoiding wasteful consumption in our daily lives".
Al-Arfaj said that with total use standing at around 25,000 MW annually the Kingdom has the highest power consumption in the Middle East.
He said that as part of its campaign to promote power conservation, SEC has launched an awareness drive through the mass media, electronic bill boards, brochures, government agencies and "all other available news channels to educate the public." Even so, because of the growing needs, the power sector would need massive investments to boost generation capacity.
According to a study conducted by AlBank AlSaudi AlFransi (BSF), the Kingdom’s power sector would need for the next 23 years an investment of $ 115 billion for setting up new power plants. Power consumption has been growing annually at the rate of 5.5 percent, with the total number of electricity subscribers standing at around 3.5 million.
The study points out that 48 percent of power is consumed by residential units and that this sector has been expanding rapidly with the break-up of joint families into nuclear ones. This is reflected in the statistics released by Thomas Pillot, vice president (ales & marketing), Schneider Electric, which show a near-100 percent increase this year in their sale of distribution boards (Disbo) to the domestic sector. The residential sector was followed by the industrial sector which accounts for 24 percent of the total consumption, while agricultural sector consumes only two percent. The BSF has underlined its commitment to finance independent power projects in the Kingdom.
A senior official of the Electricity Services Authority has indicated that talks on private sector investments with multinational and Saudi companies in the Kingdom will start after Haj.
"We are looking for investors to enter and compete with the Saudi Electricity Company to provide better services at low cost," Fareed Zaidan, governor of the Electricity Services Authority, was quoted as saying in a recent statement.
