Saudi Electricity Company

Saudi Electricity Company (Arabic: الشركة السعودية للكهرباء‎‎; SEC) is a Saudi electric utility company. It enjoys a monopoly on the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power in Saudi Arabia through 45 power generation plants in the country.

The company was formed in 2000 by Order of the Council of Ministers through a merger of existing regional electricity companies in the Central, Eastern, Western and Southern regions into a single joint stock company. In 2009, the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority (ECRA) announced its intention to split the company into four generation companies and separate transmission and distribution companies to encourage competition in the domestic utilities sector. A transmission company – National Grid SA – was established in 2012 to operate the national grid.

In 2014, ECRA was said to have hired advisors on the break-up of the company. ECRA also confirmed the new generation companies will be open to foreign investment.

The company is 81.24 percent owned by the government, both directly (74.31 percent) and through Saudi Aramco (6.93 percent).

SEC plans to expand its power generation capacity from 60 GW to 91 GW by 2020 and more than double the existing capacity over the long term to meet demand.

In 2015, SEC, Taqnia Energy and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) agreed to collaborate to build and operate the first standalone solar power station in the country.