“By the end of the third quarter of 2011, SEC’s actual generating capacity rose to 51,743 megawatts with the company’s generators contributing the lion’s share of 85 percent,” the statement said.
The company’s generating capacity is expected to increase further with the completion of three expansion projects within two months. “By the end of this year, the total generating capacity will reach 52,000 megawatts. This shows a 100 percent increase in power generation compared to the year 2000,” it said.
The addition of 2,180 megawatts came from 21 gas-powered generating units that entered on stream in the third quarter. “The last nine months of 2011 saw the implementation of a number of electricity projects in various parts of the country,” the company said. They include 12 gas-powered units in the 10th power plant in Riyadh with a capacity of 671 megawatt and two gas-powered units in Shoaiba and Dhuba with 794 and 36 megawatts respectively. Other additions were in the electricity plants of Tabuk and Hail.
The CEO and President of SEC, Ali Al-Barrak, has said that his company would spend $80 billion over the next decade to keep pace with population growth in the Kingdom, which will result in an increase in demand for electricity by more than 30,000 megawatts by 2020. About 70 percent of energy consumption in the Kingdom goes to air conditioning.
