Saudi Arabia-headquartered international utility projects company ACWA said on Sunday that construction activity continued at scale, with 32 projects under construction representing 44.2 gigawatts (GW) of power and 2.6 million cubic metres per day (m3/day) of desalinated water. 

During the first quarter of 2026, the company achieved two commercial operations, adding 0.77 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity and 0.6 million m3/day of desalinated water, ACWA said in its first-quarter results published on the Saudi stock exchange.

“Our portfolio continues to scale and diversify. As of the end of March, we managed 109 assets across operations, construction, and advanced development, representing 455 billion Saudi riyals ($120.77 billion) of assets under management,” said CEO Dr Samir Serhan.

This includes 95.7 GW of power capacity and 9.7 million cubic meters per day of water capacity.

ACWA secured its first greenfield project in Kuwait, Az-Zour North Phase 2 & 3 Independent Water and Power Plant, adding 2.7 GW of power capacity and 0.6 million m3/day of desalinated water to the development pipeline and successfully achieved financial close on the Nukus 2 wind project in Uzbekistan.

The company is "moving forward with heightened caution and careful execution across the development and construction pipelines, calibrated to the current external environment", the CEO said.

According to the company, the three projects in Saudi Arabia will become operational this year. These include the SAR 6 billion Red Sea project, with a commercial operation date in the second quarter of 2026; SAR 32 billion Neom Green Hydrogen in the fourth quarter of 2026; and SAR 5.2 billion Ar Rass 2 solar PV IPP in the secind quarter of 2026.

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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