"The electricity demand is expected to increase from about 40,000 megawatts to 121,000 megawatts in year 2032...This is driven by the population growth and by the forecast gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the country," Abdullah Al-Shehri, governor for regulatory affairs at the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority (ECRA).
"The liquid fuel consumption is also expected to increase and this is a concern to us because the petroleum is one of the major resources of the revenue for Saudi Arabia and we do not want to see much of it used internally for producing electricity, but to provide alternatives to this," Shehri said in a presentation at an industry event.
Shehri added that the national gas supply is expected to remain at the current level.
The Kingdom has said it is investing SR300 billion ($80 billion) to boost installed power capacity to 67,000 MW by 2020, up from 46,000 MW now.
Meanwhile, Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) has invited local and foreign investors to express interest in a 1,800 megawatt power plant.
The planned conventional steam power plant in Al-Qurayah, south of the eastern city of Alkhobar, will use heavy fuel oil as a feedstock, SEC's Chief Executive Ali Al-Barrak said on Tuesday.
"This plant is under the Independent Power Project plan aimed to involve private sector in power production in the Kingdom. Requests for proposals (RFPs) will be before the end of this year," he said.
The deadline for the expression of interest is May 31, he said.
