Raeco reports OMR11m profit

Muscat: Rural Areas Electricity Company (Raeco), which serves customers in the rural areas of Oman, said it earned a net profit of OMR11.3 million in 2016.
The company’s revenue grew by 13 per cent to OMR95 million in 2016, from OMR84 million in the previous year. The growth in revenue was mainly driven by a 15 per cent growth in government subsidy as a result of a 7 per cent rise in number of customers.
Revenue from electricity sales reached OMR13 million, and government subsidy increase to OMR77 million in 2016, from OMR67 million in the previous year. “The operating expenses increased by 21 per cent due to the increase in electricity production by 9 per cent and rise in diesel prices during 2016,” said Raeco in its annual report.
The total number of Raeco customers grew by 7 per cent to 35,458 in 2016. Net additions of 2,271 customers were added to the customer base in 2016.
As many as 69 per cent of Raeco customers are in the domestic category and consume about 47 per cent of total energy supplied. The government and commercial categories contribute 20 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, of the total power supply. The total consumption of other categories is around 17 per cent.
Most Raeco customers are supplied to from the company’s power stations. “However, some power is purchased from Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO). Power purchase from PDO offers a more economic means of providing power to some very remote locations where Raeco power generation systems do not exist and customers are located near PDO power plants,” added the annual report.
Energy supplied to Raeco customers reached 848 GWh in 2016, compared with 816 GWh in 2015.
The total installed capacity of Raeco, which has 34 diesel-based power plants, increased to 270 megawatt by end-2016 and the largest capacity plants are Khasab (66 megawatt) and Duqm (67 megawatt).
“Our company operates six desalination plants (three of them combined with power plant sites), which supply bulk desalinated water to the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW).”