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Ziad bin Mohammed Al-Shiha, who has been appointed as new CEO of Saudi Electricity Co., has called for greater efforts to make the Kingdom’s power generation more efficient.
Al-Shiha, who replaces Ali bin Saleh Al-Barrak, was a manager with oil giant Saudi Aramco.
SEC’s board of directors announced the new appointment on Monday, adding that Al-Shiha would take charge on Jan. 1, 2014.
Saleh Al-Awaji, chairman of SEC, said the board accepted Al-Barrak’s resignation. He praised Al-Barrak’s contributions to SEC’s progress during the past seven years.
Under Al-Barrak, Saudi Electricity aggressively expanded its generation capacity and capital spending to meet surging domestic power demand, which has been growing at annual rate of nine percent.
The company, which is majority state-owned, implemented a number of independent power producer (IPP) projects involving the private sector.
Al-Awaji expressed his hope that the highly qualified new chief executive would take the company to greater heights, realizing its future development plans.
Al-Shiha has been working as executive director for power systems at Saudi Aramco. He has promoted cogeneration plants, which seek to operate efficiently by simultaneously generating electricity and useful heat.
“Between reducing or increasing the efficiency of the supply and enhancing the efficiency of the demand, I think the Kingdom can save thousands and hundreds of thousands of (barrels of) oil equivalent," Al-Shiha told an industry conference in May 2011.
Nearly 40 percent of the country's electricity is still produced by burning oil; the government has become increasingly concerned that rising domestic consumption could eventually limit oil supplies available for export, though it has shied away from taking tough action to promote energy efficiency such as slashing domestic energy price subsidies.
Al-Shiha holds a master’s degree in executive business management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, another master’s degree in engineering (control systems) from Rice University in Houston and a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
He has held several important Aramco positions inside and outside the Kingdom, dealing with oil, gas and pipeline sectors. He began his career with Aramco as an electrical engineer before becoming vice president for planning.
Other positions held by him at the oil company were: Development manager; public relations manager; and infrastructure planning manager. He has been a member of SEC’s board of directors as well as a board member of Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.