A conference that combines water, electricity and power generation was convened on Sunday at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center (DIEC). The conference aims to highlight once more Saudi Arabia's need to ensure self-sufficiency in water supply and power generation. Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al-Husayen, Minister of Water and Electricity, opened the conference along with an exhibition of the latest products and technologies in the water and electricity sectors. The event, now on its fourth consecutive year, will run until April 9. Speakers from the Saudi Ministry of Water and Electricity, the Saudi Electricity Company, the Saudi Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), the Saudi Electricity and Co-Generation Regulatory Authority, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Water & Electricity L.L.C. and Technology, and representatives of colleges and universities from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region will address the conference. The ministry has estimated that the Kingdom will require at least 30 Gigawatts (gw) of additional power generation capacity by 2023-2025 – to double the current installed capacity of 29.1 GW – which will cost an estimated $90-$100 billion. SWCC, on the other hand, has estimated that by 2020, Saudi Arabia will need investments of $50 billion in water projects, including those integrated with new power generation capacity, in order to meet the Kingdom's equally rapidly growing water demand. Funds to finance these expansions in the power and water sectors are expected to come mostly from national and foreign investors. “I hope that the conference and exhibition will be able to generate interest among investors to participate in the gigantic tasks of financing our projects, that will ensure the long-term water and power generation needs of Saudi Arabia,” Al-Husayen said after the inauguration of the conference and exhibition. The Supreme Economic Council has already approved the development of mega-scale integrated and independent water and power projects (IWPPs). Up to 60 percent of the required financing of these projects will be offered to private investors. The Saudi Electricity Company has already approved four such mega-projects, worth more than $8 billion. The combined production capacity of those four projects will provide more than 7000Mw of power and 2.3 million cubic meters of water daily. They will boost the total desalination capacity of the Kingdom by 80 percent as of 2008 and 2010. __
