Saudi Electricity Demand Drops for the First Time on Record

Initiative Electricity Sector Transitions
Type Data Insight
Date 12th October 2020

Abstract

Since 1990, Saudi Arabia’s electricity consumption has risen rapidly and consistently, at an average rate of around 6% per year. This growth rate is considerably high when compared with the global average growth rate of 3% and 4.8% in developed countries. In 2012, Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Energy Efficiency Center (SEEC) and Saudi Energy Efficiency Program (SEEP) to curb inefficient electricity consumption.

Authors

Salaheddine Soummane

Research Associate Salaheddine Soummane is a research associate in the Energy Transitions and Electric Power program. His current research scopes include modeling… Salaheddine Soummane is a research associate in the Energy Transitions and Electric Power program. His current research scopes include modeling the Saudi electricity market, electricity market reforms and regulatory framework. Prior to joining KAPSARC, Salaheddine worked as a research associate for CIRED (France). He had also worked as a researcher within the R&D division of the utility group EDF (Paris) while completing his Ph.D. His doctoral dissertation assessed the implications of climate policy on oil exporters, with an exploration of structural change scenarios of the Saudi economy. Salaheddine holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Paris-Saclay University (France), and M.Sc. degrees in Energy Economics from the University of Montpellier (France), and in Econometrics for Financial Markets from the Aix-Marseille School of Economics (France).

Expertise

Electricity Markets
Macroeconomics
CGE Modeling
Climate Policy

Publications See all Salaheddine Soummane’s publications