ACWA Power Starts Commercial Operations at Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 Gas Plants

ACWA Power has begun commercial operations at the first units of its Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 gas-fired power plants in Saudi Arabia, after receiving certificates on September 22, 2026 from project companies Sidra One for Electricity and Qudra One for Electricity confirming the initial commercial operation date for both sites. The two plants, located near Medina and in the central Qassim region, add a combined 2,555 MW of operating capacity in this first phase, with full commercial operation of both projects at roughly 3.8 GW combined scheduled for 2027.

Two large combined-cycle plants entering service in stages

Taiba 1 started with 1,272 MW of capacity and Qassim 1 with 1,283 MW, both using combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) technology, in which waste heat from the gas turbines drives an additional steam cycle to raise overall plant efficiency compared with simple-cycle gas generation. GE Vernova supplied the gas turbines and related services under what the company has described as a milestone order for the two projects. ACWA Power said it expects the financial impact of the newly operating units to begin showing in its results from the fourth quarter of 2026, with the remaining capacity at both sites following a phased path to full commercial operation next year.

Gas power to free up crude for export

The two plants fit into a broader Saudi strategy of shifting domestic power generation away from burning crude oil and fuel oil directly and toward natural gas, freeing up crude that would otherwise be consumed at home for export instead. Vision 2030’s energy framework has paired that gas-for-power push with a parallel expansion of solar and wind capacity, including the government-backed target of developing 58.7 GW of renewables by 2030, of which ACWA Power, alongside Saudi Aramco Power and the Public Investment Fund, is contracted to build roughly 70%. Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 sit on the fossil side of that dual strategy rather than the renewable side, underscoring that Saudi Arabia’s power buildout still relies heavily on new gas capacity even as it scales up wind and solar; the kingdom’s own NEOM green hydrogen project illustrates the other end of that spectrum, where electrolysis powered entirely by renewables is meant to displace fossil fuels in industrial applications rather than the power grid.

ACWA’s ownership and the PIF connection

ACWA Power is roughly 44%-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with the remainder publicly traded on the Tadawul exchange following the company’s 2021 initial public offering. That ownership structure has made ACWA the PIF’s primary vehicle for large-scale power and desalination projects inside the kingdom and increasingly across the wider region, spanning both thermal gas plants like Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 and renewable and green hydrogen ventures elsewhere in its portfolio.

Adding capacity to a fast-growing grid

Saudi Arabia’s electricity demand has been climbing on the back of population growth, industrial expansion and rising cooling load, and the kingdom has moved to add both thermal and renewable capacity in parallel rather than relying on one to displace the other in the near term. Natural gas has become the preferred fuel for that new thermal capacity over oil-fired generation, in part because it burns more efficiently in combined-cycle configuration and in part because it directly supports the crude-export objective behind the broader shift. The roughly 3.8 GW that Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 will eventually add, once both reach full commercial operation in 2027, represents a meaningful addition to that thermal base even as ACWA and its partners continue building out the renewable side of the kingdom’s generation mix in parallel.

Sources

• Argaam, “Acwa says Taiba 1, Qassim 1 start initial commercial operations,” September 2026 — certificate issuance date, project company names, capacity figures, financial impact timeline. argaam.com
• AGBI, “Acwa starts generating electricity at two Saudi plants,” September 2026 — independent confirmation of initial operations and technology details. agbi.com
• GE Vernova, “GE Vernova secures milestone gas turbine and services order for Taiba 1 and Qassim 1 power plants in Saudi Arabia” — turbine supplier and technology confirmation. gevernova.com
• Public Investment Fund, “ACWA Power, Badeel and SAPCO to invest approximately $8.3 billion to develop 15,000 MW of renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia” — PIF ownership stake and Vision 2030 renewables target context. pif.gov.sa

Illustrative image. Photo: M J Roscoe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source