Saudi Arabia Advances Power System Upgrades

1 May 2026 Issue: 69 / 18 By: Jamie Ingram

Saudi Arabia made significant progress in upgrading its power sector last year, bringing online new gas and renewable capacity to meet record demand. Despite the regional conflict, further upgrades are moving ahead. Meanwhile, reduced gas flows to industrial plants are helping maintain gas deliveries to power plants.

Saudi Arabia’s power demand continues to grow rapidly, driven by strong non-oil GDP growth. Despite disruption caused by the Middle East conflict, the authorities are pressing ahead with projects to expand and strengthen the kingdom’s power sector. Recent weeks have seen a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed for a new 2.3GW gas-fired power plant and a tender launched for 12GWh of battery energy storage capacity (BESS).

Saudi Energy (SE: formerly the SEC) operates the national grid, through which around 97% of electricity is distributed. Power sold through the SE grid rose by 8% in 2025 to a record 349.16TWh (see chart 1). Peak load also increased to a new record of 77.08GW, although the year-on-year increase was a more modest 3%. Central Saudi Arabia, where Riyadh is located, was the largest market, with the 112TWh sales there accounting for 32% of total demand (see chart 2). (CONTINUED - 1149 WORDS)