Saudi Electricity Co., the country's largest power producer, is set to be broken up into four entities that will be open to foreign investment amid plans to create competition in the country's electricity sector.
The latest initiative, to be implemented by Saudi Arabia's Electricity and Generation Regulatory Authority, or ECRA, will revolutionize the local power sector by breaking up the quasi-monopolistic SEC, which has 19% of its shares held by the public, and letting different companies, which could be fully foreign owned, compete in electricity generation.
"We will establish four power generation companies to create competition," Abdullah Shehri, deputy governor of ECRA, told an Abu Dhabi power conference.