ABSTRACT
Saudi Arabia’s Water and Electricity Ministry (WEC) estimates that the country will require at least 35 Giga watts (GW) of additional power generating capacity by 2023-25 – more than double the 2005 estimate of installed capacity of 30.5 GW – at a cost of an estimated $120 billion. (According to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), capacity reached 35.9 MW in 2007). In addition, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saline Water Conversion Corp. (SWCC) has estimated that through 2020, the country will need to spend at least $50 billion on water projects, many integrated with new power generation capacity, in order to meet the Kingdom’s equally rapidly growing water demand. Most of this money is slated to come from the private sector, including foreign investors. Feedstock for planned power capacity increases was originally expected to be natural gas and/or combined cycle. However, many new facilities may be crude-oil fired due to constraints on domestic natural gas supplies. A royal decree issued in the spring of 2006, requires that all future coastal power plants utilize crude feedstock at a set price of $0.46 per million BTU. According to a June 2008 report by Facts Global Energy, some 200,000 to 250,000 bbl/d of crude is being burned directly for power generation. All of Saudi Arabia’s electric power generation is thermal.
