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RIYADH / WAM
As governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are prioritising investments in the power sector, the region will need to invest $302 billion in the next five years to feed the rapidly rising demand for electricity, according to estimates by APICORP Energy Research for the period 2017-2021.
‘‘Of this, $179 billion will be needed to add 138GW of generating capacity, while the rest should be invested in transmission and distribution (T&D). In the GCC, governments have coped well with the rising demand for electricity. Besides adding to the capacity, some countries have also recently increased electricity prices and introduced some limited power sector reforms,’’ said the April report, entitled ‘MENA Power Investment: Finance and Reform Challenges Persist’.
To meet the rising demand, MENA power capacity will need to expand by an average of 7.4 percent each year between 2017 and 2021, which corresponds to an additional capacity of 138GW. This would require $179 billion of investment in the generation capacity and a further $123billion for T&D. ‘‘The GCC represents 43%, or 157GW, of current MENA power generating capacity. Despite this large capacity, the GCC will require $81 billion for the addition of 62GW of generating capacity and another $50 billion for T&D over next five years.