With the Saudi privatization of the desalinated water production and power generation sector in 2004, ACWA Power Projects was founded as a limited liability company. Over the course of the following four years ACWA Power Projects won tenders to build, own and operate five plants (with the Project Companies detailed in brackets); Shuaibah IWPP (SWEC) and its expansion (SEPCO), Rabigh IWSP (RABEC), Shuqaiq IWPP (SqWEC), Marafiq Jubail IWPP (JWAP). Bowarege was established as the owner and operator of two self-contained floating desalination plants and NOMAC was formed to provide operational and maintenance services to water and power generating facilities across the Kingdom.

The establishment of ACWA Power International took place in 2008 structured as a joint stock company which in turn acquired ACWA Power Projects and all its assets. The establishment of ACWA Power International and the integration of the subsidiary created a stronger entity capable of competing in regional and global markets. ACWA Power’s first win as the new entity was the Rabigh IPP (RABEC) in Saudi Arabia which was followed by the acquisition of a 58% stake in the Barka 1 IWPP in Oman.

Today, with a capital base in excess of US$ 1.4 Billion, ACWA Power holds equity ownership in a portfolio of contracted assets made up of 15,731 MW of power generation plants and 2.4 million m³/day of desalinated water production plants, all with a cumulative value in excess of US$ 23 Billion.  It is expanding into regional markets with 1,550 MW of power in Jordan; 427 MW of power and 91,000 m³/day of desalinated water in Oman and 60MWp using photovoltaic technology in its solar plant in Karadzhalovo, Bulgaria. The portfolio also includes the world’s first two sea going barge mounted, self-contained water desalination plants each capable of producing 25,000 m³/day of water. New capacity of 5900 MW of power generation, 55 000 m3/day of desalinated water and 2 270 tons per hour of steam capacity is under construction in Saudi Arabia, with several projects in an advanced stage of development. This includes a 850 MW gas fired plant in Turkey, 50 MWe Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant at Bokpoort in South Africa, 160 MWe CSP plant at Ouarzazate in Morocco and a 45,000 m³/day of water desalination project at in Oman.

These opportunities combined with the leadership of its executive management and efforts of its multi-disciplinary staff is enabling ACWA Power to steadily move towards achieving a portfolio of 38,000 MW gross contracted capacity of power by 2018 with a 10% contribution from renewable power and five million cubic meters per day of gross desalinated water.