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Acwa Power consolidates power sector dominance

26 September 2025

 

This package also includes: GCC enters pivotal year for IPPs

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has tightened its grip on the top position in MEED’s 2025 GCC Power Developer Ranking, extending its lead over international competitors as new projects and equity stakes lifted both its net and gross capacity to record levels.

The latest index includes a survey of 140 privately owned and financed power generation plants in the six GCC states, including those with attached water desalination facilities. 

These plants have a collective gross electricity generation capacity of about 152.1GW. This includes 31 new schemes for which the contracts were awarded between September 2024 and August 2025. With a total combined gross capacity of 39.7GW, these awards involve 15 solar farms, five wind farms and 11 gas-fired power plants.

Strong lead

At the top of the ranking, Acwa Power’s net capacity has climbed to 28.1GW in 2025, in a 70% increase on the 16.5GW reported last year. Its gross capacity has also surged by nearly 70%, rising from 45.4GW in 2024 to 76.1GW in 2025 – triple the gross capacity of the company’s closest competitor. 

Underlining the extent of its dominance in the GCC market, Acwa Power now holds more equity than the rest of the region’s top 10 developers combined. This reflects the central role it is playing in Saudi Arabia’s power and water transition.

The bulk of Acwa Power’s capacity gains in 2025 are tied to awards for several large-scale renewables projects made directly under the state-owned Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP). These include the 3GW Humaji and Bisha solar plants, the 2GW Starah wind power development, two 2GW solar plants at Afif, a 2GW facility at Khulais and the 1GW Shaqra wind power project. 

All were advanced under the PIF’s direct procurement framework, with each of the projects listing Acwa Power as the lead private shareholder. Together, they account for more than 15GW of capacity, representing most of Acwa’s year-on-year growth and reinforcing its privileged position as the PIF’s strategic partner for renewables delivery.

Acwa Power’s surge has been driven not only by new capacity additions with the PIF, but also by acquisitions that expanded its regional footprint. In February, the company agreed to purchase French firm Engie’s stakes in key assets including Kuwait’s Al-Zour North independent water and power project (IWPP) and several plants in Bahrain, adding more than 4.6GW of gas-fired power to its portfolio. 

That transfer of assets also explains the fall in Engie’s reported capacity this year. The developer yet retains second place in the ranking, despite a drop in net capacity from 8GW to 6.5GW and no new awards in the region for the second year running.

Acwa Power now holds more equity than the rest of the region’s top 10 developers combined

Market shake-up

The shifting fortunes of other international players show a market where some developers are consolidating while others are slipping back.

Japan’s Marubeni has sustained modest growth, taking its net capacity to 4.6GW, enough to keep its position rather than significantly closing the gap.

France’s EDF, by contrast, is a standout performer among international utilities, having grown its net capacity by more than 1GW to exceed 3GW. New equity in Saudi Arabia’s Taiba 2 and Qassim 2 combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) projects, together with the Al-Ajban solar plant in Abu Dhabi, all contributed to the positive year for the firm. EDF has now risen up the rankings for two years in a row.

South Korea’s Kepco meanwhile increased its net capacity by nearly 180% to 2.8GW, alongside the near tripling of its gross capacity to 9GW – catapulting the firm directly into the top six. This came from fresh stakes in combined-cycle projects in Saudi Arabia, broadening its role in the kingdom beyond previous partnerships.

Japan’s developers were less standout, yet they remain a key part of the top tier. Jera added more than 1,100MW in equity to reach 2,936MW net capacity. Mitsui held steady and Sumitomo climbed modestly with this year’s net capacities at 2,537MW and 2,245MW respectively.

Their marginal gains do not quite match the leaps made by EDF and Kepco, but are enough to keep them secure among the region’s elite power developers.

The strong rise of other local companies in 2024 has partly been maintained. Both Saudi Arabia’s Ajlan & Bros and Aljomaih have increased their equity to more than 2GW for the first time, supporting their rankings with stakes in major Saudi solar and CCGT projects.

Ajlan’s presence has been boosted by its role in round four of Saudi Arabia’s NREP, where it took a stake in the 700MW Yanbu wind independent power project (IPP), in addition to further involvement in gas-fired capacity. 

Aljomaih, meanwhile, added to its long-standing shares in the Taiba 2 and Qassim 2 CCGT plants through participation in round five of the programme, which awarded the 300MW Rabigh 2 solar IPP. Both firms have sustained their positions with incremental gains rather than significant expansion.

This reshuffle means that China’s Jinko Power, which had held 10th place last year with 1.3GW, has dropped out of the top tier after securing no new contracts.

The fall in Engie’s equity and the relatively modest performance of Japanese firms highlights how Acwa Power’s aggressive growth has shifted the regional balance. 

From a competitive standpoint, Acwa Power’s dominance is now such that it holds more than four times the net capacity of Engie, in second place. 

This concentration of capacity with a single developer raises questions about market dependency, though it also reflects Saudi Arabia’s strategy of leveraging a domestic champion to deliver large-scale power assets at speed.

Future growth

The GCC power sector continues to be shaped by three main factors. 

Renewables remain the backbone of new capacity additions, with solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects continuing to define the region’s energy transition. 

Gas-fired baseload capacity is still essential to balance intermittent supply from renewables and is increasingly being tied to carbon-capture plans. 

Local private participation, which surged in 2024, has in 2025 been more about consolidation, with regional developers holding positions rather than climbing further.

In 2025, new project awards were dominated by renewables, with more than 17GW of solar capacity and nearly 4GW of wind, but gas-fired plants still accounted for over 18GW, reflecting the region’s continued reliance on dependable baseload power.

The outlook for power tariffs remains mixed. While the record-low solar PV tariffs seen in previous rounds are less likely to be repeated, recent contract awards still underline the region’s competitiveness. 

Rising financing costs and pressure on engineering, procurement and construction capacity are weighing on pricing and timelines, although falling commodity costs may help to keep tariffs lower than in other parts of the world. For gas-fired
projects, turbine supply chain constraints continue to add cost pressure. CCGT projects with carbon-capture elements are likely to carry premiums compared to conventional schemes.

If the large-scale PIF projects and the Engie acquisitions are stripped out, Acwa Power’s 2025 growth looks far less dramatic. Its expansion would have been limited to schemes such as the Hajr and Marjan gas-fired projects, adding only about 5GW of capacity. The developer would still lead the GCC market, but its margin over international rivals would be much narrower, and its year would have looked more like steady progress than the exceptional leap that has defined it.

However, with Saudi Arabia set to procure up to 20GW a year of renewables and gas-fired capacity under the NREP, Acwa Power’s lead is likely to widen further in the coming years. 

International competitors will remain present, but the scale of national programmes and Acwa Power’s position as a domestic champion look set to define the market’s shape. For now, 2025 marks the year Acwa Power moved from being a strong leader to an almost unassailable one in the GCC power developer rankings.

GCC enters pivotal year for IPPs

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Mark Dowdall

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