Electricity generation analyses in an oil-exporting country : Transition to non-fossil fuel based power units in Saudi Arabia

Arash Farnoosh (1) , Frédéric Lantz (1) , Jacques Percebois (2)

1 IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
2 CREDEN - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Droit de l'ENergie

In Saudi Arabia, fossil-fuel is the main source of power generation. Due to the huge economic and demographic growth, the electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia has increased and should continue to increase at a very fast rate. At the moment, more than half a million barrels of oil per day is used directly for power generation. Herein, we assess the power generation situation of the country and its future conditions through a modelling approach. For this purpose, we present the current situation by detailing the existing generation mix of electricity. Then we develop a optimization model of the power sector which aims to define the best production and investment pattern to reach the expected demand. Subsequently, we will carry out a sensitivity analysis so as to evaluate the robustness of the model’s by taking into account the integration variability of the other alternative (non-fossil fuel based) resources. The results point out that the choices of investment in the power sector strongly

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Economics and Finance

Arash Farnoosh, Frédéric Lantz, Jacques Percebois. Electricity generation analyses in an oil-exporting country : Transition to non-fossil fuel based power units in Saudi Arabia: Cahiers de l'Economie, Série Recherche, n° 92. 2013. ⟨hal-02474811⟩