Commercial operations kicked off at Acwa Power’s 500 MW Dzhankeldy Wind Independent Power Project (IPP) and 500 MW Bash Wind IPP in Uzbekistan, according to disclosures to Tadawul (here and here). The impact of the operations is expected to be reflected in Acwa’s financials in 2Q 2025.

BACKGROUND- The company signed 25-year power purchase agreements with the National Electrical Grid of Uzbekistan for both projects, which included a 128 km transmission line for Dzhankeldy and a 160 km one for Bash. The OPEC Fund approved two USD 20 mn loans to finance the projects in April 2023.

Who owns what? Acwa offloaded a 35% stake in the USD 1.3 bn projects to China Southern Power Grid International, China Southern Power Grid’s global investment arm, for SAR 596 mn (c. USD 159 mn) in July 2024. The renewables giant currently holds a 65% stake in each of the projects.

Acwa has bigger energy projects in the country: Acwa has a total of 15 projects in Uzbekistan, worth around USD 13.9 bn. Acwa signed a SAR 18.2 bn (c. USD 4.9 bn) power purchase agreement with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (Negu) to develop a new 5 GW wind farm — set to be the largest in Central Asia — in May. It also signed a SAR 985 mn (c. 262.6 mn) power purchase agreement to develop the 200 MW Nukus 2 wind project in April 2024 and a USD 2.4 bn agreement with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan for a 1.5 GW wind energy farm in January 2024. The company also achieved full commercial operation at its 1.5 GW Sirdarya Combined Cycle Gas-Turbine power plant in December 2024.

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