Kuwait plans to double its power production capacity to more than 20,000 megawatts over the next five years, Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah said on Thursday.
Power projects underway in the Gulf emirate will add around 6,400 megawatts of new capacity over the next two years, the prime minister was cited by the official KUNA news agency as telling editors of local dailies on Thursday.
The oil-rich country has also approved other projects that are expected to add 3,600 megawatts of power capacity by the end of 2014, the prime minister added. Kuwait's current production capacity is around 11,000 megawatts.
He gave no figures on the cost of the projects, but two years ago the then Electricity and Water minister Mohammad al-Olaim told parliament the emirate planned to spend 27 billion dollars on power and water projects.
The electricity and water ministry said a few months ago that power projects slated for completion in 2011 would cost at least nine billion dollars.
Last month, Kuwait picked General Electric to build a new power generation and water desalination plant in Subbiya, north of the country, at a cost of 2.65 billion dollars to produce 2,000 megawatts of power.
This is the first new power plant since 1989, according to Electricity and Water Minister Bader al-Azemi.
Kuwait, which adopts a cradle-to-grave welfare policy, still sells power at highly subsidised charges to its 1.1 million citizens and 2.35 million foreign residents.
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