Acwa | Acwa Operations

Acwa Operations

Safe, reliable power and water.

Founded in 2005, Acwa Operations, formerly NOMAC (First National Operations & Maintenance Company), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Acwa. We operate and care for power and water assets that millions of people rely on every day, delivering safe, reliable operations and maintenance services across electricity generation and water desalination.

Keeping power and water flowing safely and reliably is central to everything we do. We work closely with both internal and external customers to ensure our performance is benchmarked against best-in-class global operators. By maintaining a strong understanding of market dynamics, technology trends, and global developments, we ensure our operations remain resilient, informed, and ready to respond to change. This discipline helps us stay commercially competitive, delivering high performance at a cost position that stands up in any market.

With operations across the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, China, and Southeast Asia, our teams combine global experience with deep local insight. This approach has built a strong international reputation for consistent delivery, transparency, and competitive cost structures — without compromising safety or technical standards.

Alongside supporting Acwa’s own portfolio, we also support external clients as a trusted operations and maintenance provider, sharing our experience to support long-term asset performance and reliability.

Our in-house field services division, Acwa Field Services (formerly NMES), plays a vital role in this work. As a leading regional non-OEM service provider, it supports plants with outage management, on-site machining, valve repair, and rapid-response maintenance when it matters most.

Learn more about Acwa Field Services

To support our teams and assets, we operate centralized Monitoring and Prognostics Centers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with further expansion underway in Central Asia. Using data-led monitoring and prognostic insights, we help improve performance, strengthen reliability, and reduce unplanned disruptions across our portfolio.

Everything we do is guided by a commitment to safety, sustainability, and operational excellence — shaping how we work, how we support our people, and how we deliver long-term value to the communities we serve.

How we work and deliver

How we work shapes how well we deliver. Our people, our structure, and our operational approach are all designed to keep essential power and water assets running safely, reliably, and efficiently. Together, they help us build local capability while delivering consistent performance at scale.

People, capability, and local value

Our strength lies not only in technical excellence, but in our people. Acwa Operations is a company that actively develops local talent, creating opportunities for professionals from our host communities to become experts in power, water, and hydrogen technologies.

We believe that the fundamental and critical infrastructure of any country should be built, operated, and sustained by its own people. Through training, exposure to diverse projects, and long-term career development, we support the transfer of skills and knowledge that strengthens national capability while delivering operational excellence.

Our structure

Acwa Operations operates as a lean organization, with few management layers and a strong focus on accountability and execution. This structure enables faster decision-making, closer engagement with plant teams, and a clear understanding of what is happening across our operations.

We know our people, we understand their work, and we take responsibility for their wellbeing. We take care of our teams, and we place equal importance on their professional growth, and learning & development, ensuring they continue to develop as capable, confident operators and leaders.

Operations and maintenance

We operate and maintain large-scale power generation and water desalination facilities that are essential to everyday life. Our teams manage complex, energy-intensive assets with a strong focus on safety, reliability, and efficiency, supported by consistent standards across all regions where we operate.

As part of Acwa, we deliver operations and maintenance services across power, water, renewable energy, green hydrogen, and related technologies. Our experience spans the full lifecycle of an asset, from early operational readiness through long-term performance optimization, delivering dependable outcomes at competitive cost.

Our services

End-to-end operations and maintenance

Full lifecycle support covering engineering design review, plant mobilization, commissioning, and long-term operation, delivered with consistent standards across regions.

Technical advisory and consultancy

Practical guidance to help improve system performance, strengthen reliability, and support compliance, informed by hands-on operational experience.

Performance monitoring and optimization

Centralized oversight supported by advanced analytics, digital twins, and real-time data to help identify issues early and improve asset efficiency.

Outage management and major equipment maintenance

Planned and unplanned outage support, including overhauls and maintenance of gas turbines, steam turbines, generators, pumps, thermal desalination systems, and reverse osmosis facilities.

Reliability and efficiency improvement programs

Structured programs that use root cause analysis, failure mode assessments, and risk-based maintenance approaches to reduce downtime and extend asset life.

Spare parts planning and logistics

Strategic sourcing, inventory management, and procurement support to help ensure operational continuity and reduce supply-related risks.

Digital and operational interventions

Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation of the energy and water sector plays an important role in advancing the Kingdom’s 2030 climate commitments. By improving efficiency across existing assets, the sector contributes to the Nationally Determined Contribution target of reducing emissions by 278 million tons of CO₂ equivalent per year by 2030, in line with the Circular Carbon Economy framework.

As a leading developer and operator of power and water assets, Acwa Operations plays a central role in supporting this transition. The Monitoring and Prognostics Center (MPC) was established to move beyond manual monitoring and reactive maintenance across a geographically distributed portfolio, enabling a more proactive and consistent operating model.

The MPC operates as a fleet-wide, data-driven platform that brings together asset data from across the portfolio. It standardizes data collection, secures information through cloud-based systems, and uses real-time processing to support continuous oversight. Prognostic analytics, supported by digital twins and machine learning, are applied centrally to help anticipate equipment behavior and operational risks.

Performance dashboards support plant teams and central operators with clear visibility, alerts, case management, automated reporting, and financial insights linked to cost avoidance. The system is designed to remain flexible, allowing it to work with multiple tools and models without reliance on a single vendor.

Since 2017, the MPC has delivered verified efficiency improvements and emissions reductions across multiple technologies. Optimizing heat rates in combined-cycle plants has reduced fuel use and emissions intensity. Improvements in desalination efficiency have reduced emissions per unit of water produced, while higher availability in wind and solar assets has delivered further reductions. Additional avoided emissions result from preventing outages and improving overall reliability.

By 2030, the MPC is expected to support annual emissions reductions of approximately 588,717 tons of CO₂ through these proven digital and operational interventions.

Stefan Verlee - President and CEO, Acwa Operations

At Acwa Operations, our role is clear: to operate critical power and water assets with care, discipline, and a deep sense of responsibility. Every day, our teams focus on keeping facilities safe, reliable, and ready to serve the communities that depend on them.

As part of Acwa, we support a diverse portfolio of power generation and water desalination assets across multiple regions. Today, our teams operate more than 33 gigawatts of power capacity and over 6.4 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day, working across 14 countries with a shared commitment to consistent standards and dependable operations.

Our progress has been driven by people and by the belief that operational excellence is built over time. We invest in technical capability, digital tools, and centralized monitoring to help our teams identify risks early, improve performance, and reduce unplanned disruptions.

Equally important is our responsibility to develop local capabilities. Across power, water, and hydrogen, we create opportunities for professionals from local communities to grow into skilled operators and technical specialists. By building local expertise, we support the fundamentals of national infrastructure and help ensure that critical assets are operated by the people they ultimately serve.

Alongside operating Acwa’s own assets, we also work with external partners through third-party operations and maintenance services, sharing our experience with clients who value reliability, transparency, and long-term thinking.

None of this would be possible without our people. We know our teams, we understand their roles, and we take care of them — ensuring they are supported financially, developed professionally, and empowered to grow over time. Together, we will continue to raise standards in how essential infrastructure is operated, today and for the future.