ACWA Power announced in a statement that it has signed water purchase agreements for the 600,000 cubic metre per day Rabigh 4 Independent Water Plant (IWP) in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), a government offtaker, will be the sole buyer of services for the project, which is located on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia.
The agreements were signed by His Excellency Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture with Chairman of the SWPC, and Mr. Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, in the presence of Mr. Marco Arcelli, Chief Executive Officer of ACWA Power, and Mr. Raad Al-Saady, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of ACWA Power.
Valued at around SAR 2.54 billion, the reverse osmosis plant will service the Makkah and Madinah regions, which typically see a spike in demand during the Ramadan and the annual Hajj season.
ACWA Power currently operates Rabigh 3 IWP in the area with the same capacity as Rabigh 4. Last year, Rabigh 3 was recognised as the World’s Largest Reverse Osmosis Desalination plant by the Guinness World Records™.
With Rabigh 4 IWP, ACWA Power will double its desalination capacity in Rabigh Area. Financial close for the project is expected during the third quarter of 2023.
ACWA Power now operates 16 desalination plants in four countries, ten of which are in Saudi Arabia. The company fulfils 30% of the Kingdom’s water demand. In 2022 alone, the company added 2.4 million cm3/day of water desalination capacity via four desalination plants in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE—the highest in its history.
