07.04.2010 Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy, plans to spend $80 billion on expanding its power generation capacity and transmission network in the next decade to meet rising demand.
“Two-thirds of the funding will be by Saudi Electricity Co.,” Saleh H. Al-Awaji, deputy minister for electricity and acting chairman of the state-controlled utility, said at a conference in Singapore today. “One-third is expected to come from private investors.”
Saudi Electricity needs to boost capacity by 3,000 megawatts a year to meet annual demand growth of 8 percent, spurred by a $400 billion, five-year government-spending program and a rising population. The utility plans to invest 205 billion riyals ($54.7 billion) in capacity expansion by 2018.
The kingdom will boost capacity by 20,000 megawatts in the next 10 years from 46,000 megawatts currently, Al-Awaji said.
Demand may rise by 3,000 megawatts to about 45,000 megawatts this summer compared with last year, while winter consumption may reach 30,000 megawatts, the minister told reporters at the conference.
Consumption peaks in the summer months of July and August, when 70 percent of the power generated goes into air- conditioning as temperatures soar, he said.
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