Saudi Arabia leads Middle East rental power demand

Saudi Arabia is expected to fuel demand for rental power generators.

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Saudi Arabia will lead the Middle East in the demand for rental power generators, a generator manufacturer has said, as it predicted a 20% growth for the industry in 2012.

Shrikant Pataskar, the general manager of the Dubai branch of Kirloskar, told MEP Middle East that he expected Saudi Arabia to provide the greatest demand for rental power, based on the extensive construction and development work taking place in the Kingdom.

“An increase in business and infrastructure activity has been witnessed, especially in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. This has increased the demand for generators. Apart from work requirements, the dependency on electricity is very high due to weather conditions,” he said, “As such, generators are required for either prime or for stand – by purposes, depending on the availability of grid power.”

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“We expect the market to grow by at least 20%, with the major growth coming from Saudi Arabia. We also expect the re-exports market to pick up from Dubai as users in the neighbouring region would prefer to purchase as per requirement, rather than carrying a large inventory,” he added.

Robert Bagatsing, group marketing manager for Rental Solutions and Services, agreed with Pataskar, adding that the Kingdom was the priority for rental companies in the GCC, primarily because of its lack of infrastructure.

“Saudi Arabia still has opportunities because of the lack of infrastructure there, which could be attributed to a problem with funding, a delay on deliverables or other factors,” he said.

“The government, private sector and non-governmental organisations should really get their act together. There’s a lack of coordination between these three bodies, which is needed in order for them to move forwards in their power projects. We’re talking about legislation in the government; we’re talking about private-public partnerships.”

“We need enough substantial agreements between all agreed parties, we need support from nongovernmental organisations, those who are providing knowledge and paving the way for everyone to get their acts together,” he added.

Bagatsing said that RSS had signed on for a number of major contracts in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Western Africa, and that it expected to begin delivering them by the end of the first quarter of the year.