Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) supplied a record 292.7TWh to customers in 2021, up from 277.4TWh the year before as economic activity recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic. Peak load hit a record 64.2GW in Q3, up from 62.3GW the previous year (see chart). The upshot of this was that revenues edged up by 0.9% to SAR69.34bn ($18.49bn) for 2021.
This increase was dwarfed by the 376% increase in net profits to SAR14.39 ($3.84bn) for the year, which is the result of regulatory and financial reforms which took effect from 1 January 2021 (MEES, 11 November 2020). These reforms substantially reduced SEC’s government payments, and “this reflected in 19% lower operating costs year on year despite the increase in the costs of fuel, purchased power, operation and maintenance and depreciation.” (CONTINUED - 293 WORDS)
