ACWA EYES $4BN WORTH OF PROJECTS THIS YEAR

▶ Lowest tenders on two projects submitted by Saudi utilities developer

Riyadh utilities developer Acwa Power, which counts Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund as a stakeholder, is looking to bid on about $4 billion worth of projects for the rest of 2018, its chief executive said.

“We submitted the lowest tender for an Egyptian PV [photovoltaic] plant, [and] the lowest bid for the desalination plant Rabigh 3 in Saudi Arabia. Before the end of this year, we have half a dozen tenders going,” Paddy Padmanathan said.

Acwa Power, a leading developer of renewable projects in the Middle East and North Africa, is 25 per cent owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The sovereign wealth fund increased its stake in the developer last month, an indication that Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is pivoting towards cleaner energy. PIF has also built a 5 per cent stake in electric vehicles manufacturer Tesla.

Acwa Power signed a memorandum of understanding last week to form an $8bn joint venture with partner Saudi Aramco as well as Air Products of the US to develop gasification facilities in Jazan Economic City on the Red Sea coast.

Mr Padmanathan declined to comment on Acwa Power’s stake in the joint venture, saying it had “not yet been defined”.

Air Products has a majority 55 per cent stake in the project. Mr Padmanathan also declined to comment on the timeline for completion of the joint venture.

PIF’s increased stake in the developer has not had an impact on the firm’s capital expenditure plans for the current year, said Mr Padmanathan.

“We have a very strong shareholder increasing their participation, so we have become an even stronger company,” he said. “We already had the capacity to take on large projects as we’ve been demonstrating over the last decade, so it just strengthens our capacity to continue to grow.”

Acwa Power, which won Saudi Arabia’s first renewable project, the a 300-megawatt PV plant at Sakaka in the northern Al Jouf area, is one of the shortlisted bidders for the kingdom’s first wind project.

The developer, alongside France’s EDF Energies Nouvelles, Italy’s Enel Green Power and France’s Engie, are the four companies that bid on the planned $500 million scheme to develop a 400MW wind farm in Dumat Al Jandal.

Saudi Arabia is ramping up efforts to develop its renewables programme, with an estimated 4GW worth of tenders to be launched this year, as it looks to free up more oil for export.

However, only two tenders have so far been issued by the newly established Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo).

Mr Padmanathan said he expected tenders to come through, even though the market had not been briefed on specific timelines.

“Things have taken a little bit longer than anticipated but now that everything is moving, I expect everything to progress step by step now according to the original pace of activity,” he said.

Acwa Power last month signed an agreement with South Africa’s Central Energy Fund to co-invest in a 100MW concentrated solar power project in the country’s North Cape province.