ACWA Power rebuilds team in Saudi Arabia

ACWA Power has been working on rebuilding its team in Saudi Arabia since Saudi Vision 2030 was unveiled last year.

Speaking with Construction Week, Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive officer and president of ACWA Power, said that the company is expecting Vision 2030 to open up “enormous opportunities” in the country’s water and power sectors.

Though it started in Saudi Arabia, ACWA Power has expanded its operations to other countries, and now has 50% of its assets outside of the kingdom. But with the launch of the reform framework, the company is working towards increasing its capacity in its home country.

“We’ve been specifically positioning ourselves by starting to rebuild our team in Saudi,” said Padmanathan, clarifying: “But not by moving people from outside, because we still have our international business – that’s continuing to grow.”

He explained that, instead, ACWA Power is adding new capacity to its Saudi team. He added: “We’ve been taking on young and more experienced people. So we’ve been growing the Saudi team in the last one year, and they are very busy getting ready, working, getting data, and preparing for the privatisation of state-owned assets and for the renewables programme.”

Saudi Vision 2030, which was launched in April last year, identifies a number of reforms that are expected to wean the country off its dependence on oil exports and help it pursue alternative income channels, including the privatisation of several state-owned assets. Also among the goals that have been set as part of the 2030 framework is the generation of 9.5 GW of renewable energy by 2023.