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To meet the Kingdom's growing demand for electrical power in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy, the Saudi government has replaced the old fragmented system of electrical power generation (provided by numerous small companies) with SCECOs - Saudi Consolidated Electric Companies - each providing electricity for a whole region of the Kingdom.
 History
The development of electricity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can be divided into two stages:
Stage 1
In the period before the formulation of the Government's development plans, the generation of electricity was left to small local companies working on a solely commercial basis. Such companies were to be found in Saudi Arabian towns and villages, selling the power they produced at varying rates according to the local cost of electricity generation.
In 1961 (1381 AH), a Department of Electricity Affairs was established within the Ministry of Commerce, with a mandate to establish rules and regulations to govern the activities of the electricity generation sector, to issue permits and licenses to electricity companies and to encourage national investment in electric power generation.
Stage 2
In 1972 (1392 AH), the Department of Electricity Services was established. This Department was separated from the Ministry of Commerce and was given the additional responsibility of planning electrical services for the Kingdom as a whole.
In 1974 (1394 AH), the Ministry of Commerce was divided in two. One part was the Commerce Agency; the other was the Industry and Electricity Agency. In that same year, the electricity tariff was set for all companies - at a level below their actual costs.
In 1975 (1395 AH), the Government adopted ambitious plans for economic development requiring very great investment in the development of industry and electrification. The Ministry of Industry and Electricity was formed, with an Industrial Affairs Agency and an Electricity Affairs Agency. The Electricity Affairs Agency expanded the planning, co-ordination and regulatory roles in the program for providing electrical services to all parts of the Kingdom. The Electricity Corporation was
established in 1976 (1396 AH) to undertake responsibility for co-ordination and achievement of the ambitious electricity plans contained in the Kingdom's Development Plan.
In the years from 1976 to 1981 (1396 - 1401 AH) all community electricity generation was gradually subsumed under the four regional Saudi Consolidated Electricity Companies (SCECOs), located in the Central, Eastern, Southern and Western regions of the Kingdom.
With the formulation of a coherent development plan and the establishment of the SCECOs, the Government was able to implement an electrification program that brought electricity to the towns and, from the towns, to the villages and settlements throughout the Kingdom.
In 1970 (1390 AH), there were 216,000 customers for electricity in the Kingdom. In 1996, there were 3,035,000. In 1999, this figure had increased to 3,372,000.
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Saudi Consolidated Electricity Companies (SCECOs)
The first SCECO (SCECO-East) was created in 1976 (1396/97 AH). This was followed in 1979 (1399/1400 AH) by SCECO-South. Electricity for the south west of the Kingdom is provided by another consolidated company, and the central region is served by SCECO-Central.
The General Electricity Corporation (GEC) had overall responsibility for the Kingdom's electricity system and had a direct responsibility for the provision of electrical supplies to rural areas not then covered by the consolidated companies. The GEC represented the government equity holdings in all the independent electricity generating companies and was a source of finance for those companies' capital requirements.
In 1998, the Government announced the reorganization of the electricity sector by establishing a stock market company, named the Saudi Electric Company, through the merger of all the electricity companies operating in the Kingdom.
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