Saudi Electricity Company Q1 2025 Revenue Surges 23% to SAR 19.5 billion, Driven by Growing Demand and Expanding Strategic Investments
The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, demonstrating significant growth in operating revenues, which increased by 23% to SAR 19.5 billion, compared to SAR 15.9 billion for the same quarter in the previous year. This strong performance is attributed to the expansion of the regulated asset base of the electricity grid, higher electricity generation revenues in response to rising demand, and increased revenues from projects' development and management related to the construction of substations and transmission lines for the benefit of the company's customers. The results demonstrate the company's success in expanding its strategic investments and initiatives aimed at improving operational efficiency.
The gross profit climbed 34.3% to SAR 2.9 billion, compared to SAR 2.1 billion in the same quarter of the previous year, while operating profit increased by 16.2% to SAR 2.3 billion, up from SAR 2.0 billion. Despite higher financing costs linked to the company's ambitious investment and expansion plans, net profit grew by 7.9% to SAR 968 million, compared to SAR 897 million in the same quarter last year.
SEC's CEO, Eng. Khalid Bin Salem Al-Ghamdi, said: "Our first-quarter performance marks a robust start to the fiscal year 2025, reflectingof strong growth in operating revenues driven by business expansions, the accelerated growth of our regulated asset base and continued improvements in operational efficiency. The results confirm the success of our strategy to efficiently implement large-scale strategic investment projects designed to foster the sustainable transformation of Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure and create long-term value for our stakeholders."
He added, "We remain committed to delivering reliable, high-quality services to our customers, accelerating our digital transformation, and enhancing customer experience. We are optimistic about the prospects for SEC's sustainable growth, as we continue to capitalize on emerging opportunities and expand our electrical grid, power generation and storage capacities to support the Kingdom's economic and demographic growth, as well as its sustainable energy transformation plans in line with Saudi Vision 2030."
During the first quarter, SEC successfully met growing demand by providing electricity services to approximately 60,300 new customers, bringing the total number of customers to around 11.37 million. Additionally, the distribution network expanded to 816,000 circuit kilometers. The lengths of the transmission and fiber optic networks grew by 4% and 7%, respectively, reaching over 100.700 circuit kilometers for transmission and 100,000 kilometers for fiber optics. The company continued its efforts to enhance the reliability of electric service and improve the customer experience, achieving a customer satisfaction rate of 87%. The company also advanced the development of its digital infrastructure, automated distribution stations, and connected them to control centers via fiber optics. As a result, the automation rate of distribution stations reached 37.5%.
Regionally, the company continued the Saudi - Egypt electricity interconnection project with a capacity of 3 GW and is conducting preliminary studies for additional international interconnection projects, including with Italy, Greece and India.
To support the Kingdom's leadership in renewable energy and build the future grid aligned with the targeted energy mix under Vision 2030, the company made significant progress in connecting renewable energy sources to the grid. By the end of the first quarter of 2025, the total connected capacity reached approximately 6.7 GW, with additional 34.4 GW of projects planned for completionby 2027. This expansion is complemented by an ambitious plan to deploy battery storage capacities, with the company currently developing and implementing up to 22 GWh. This includes a 500 MW battery project inaugurated in Bisha during the first quarter.
In power generation, the total installed capacity of the SEC's generation plants reached approximately 56 GW, and SEC is further growing its power generation fleet with a large portfolio of under development generation projects totaling 23.4 GW, which includes the expansion of fully owned existing plants, in addition to independent power plants (IPP) in which SEC owns a share and new strategic partnerships. During the first quarter of 2025, the company initiated new projects, most notably the expansion of the Qurayyah Independent Power Plant (IPP) with a capacity of 3,010 MW in the Eastern Region, with the potential to build a carbon capture unit. Additionally, the company is converting the fuel used in some plants from liquid fuel to natural gas, aiming to improve thermal efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
To support future growth and financial flexibility, the company successfully financed its expansion plans during the first quarter through the issuance of dual-tranche, unsecured Sukuk amounting to USD 2.75 billion under its international Sukuk programme. The Sukuk were issued under favorable terms and pricing, including a USD 1.5 billion tranche with a 5-year maturity, and a USD 1.25 billion green Sukuk tranche with a 10-year maturity dedicated to supporting sustainable projects. The company successfully priced the 5-year and 10-year tranches at spreads of 85 and 95 basis points, respectively, over the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, marking a historic record as the tightest spread ever achieved by a Saudi company. This reflects the growing confidence of global investors in the company's strategy and sustainability.
The company's financial profile was further strengthened with the upgrade of its credit rating by Standard & Poor's (S&P) to A+ with a stable outlook in March 2025, in line with the sovereign rating of the Kingdom.
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