*Sultan Al-Khamis from Riyadh
Saudi Electricity Company said to AlEqtisadiah, "The consumption of diesel during the past year was amounted to about 18.3 million barrels, which is recording a decrease of 48 per cent that is equivalent to 16.7 million barrels, compared to consumption of 35 million barrels in 2017.
It confirmed that the consumption of crude oil last year reached 85.2 million barrels, down 20 per cent that is equivalent to about 21.8 million barrels, compared to 2017, which amounted to 107 million barrels.
At the end of last September, SEC provided more than 14 million barrels of diesel from the beginning of 2018 until the end of August, which will reduce dependence on oil through the use of modern technologies in the field of power generation, as a part of its plans to keep pace with the Vision of the Kingdom 2030.
AlEqtisadiah quoted the engineer Ziad al-Shiha, SEC's former CEO, as he said, "The company has reached the thermal efficiency of power stations in 2018 to 39.9 per cent, compared to 38.3 per cent in 2017."
He explained that this has contributed to lower fuel consumption, in addition to strengthening the network of transport and connectivity between the regions in the Kingdom, and the operation of projects linking sites isolated network, which is boosting economic employment options.
He pointed to the implementation of several projects to strengthen the generation capacity through the implementation of projects with high efficiency, and works with natural gas, heavy fuel, instead of diesel and crude fuel.
He pointed out that raising the thermal efficiency of the generation plants in different regions of the Kingdom has contributed significantly to reducing dependence on fuel equivalent.
The Saudi Electricity Company has worked over the past years on the establishment of power stations operated by heavy fuel and natural gas instead of diesel and crude oil such as Jeddah South Thermal Power Plant with capacity of 2640 MW; SSPP with capacity of 2640 MW; the 12-megawatt natural gas generating station, as well as the conversion of the tenth station into a complex cycle system.
The Company is currently working on the completion of the operation of SSPP with the capacity of 2640 MW that to strengthen the electricity service in the southern regions, as it is a station that was created according to the latest global technologies in the field of electric power production, and operates on heavy fuel, which contribute to reducing dependence on oil, according to the Vision of the Kingdom 2030.
