Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Centre for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care) is being lined up to become the regulator for the kingdom’s nuclear energy plans, following the failure of the country’s planned renewables programme.

According to sources in the kingdom’s electricity sector, the organisation is being reformed to become the regulator for the country’s planned nuclear energy programme.

It is understood within the kingdom’s energy sector that state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and state oil major Saudi Aramco are among companies in consultation with the government regarding a nuclear power programme in the kingdom.

In September 2012, Ka-Care appointed a group of advisers to work on plans to develop the 17.9GW nuclear programme. The group included US management consultancy Oliver Wyman, France’s BNP Paribas and the local Riyad Bank. There has been little further information released about the programme since then, but with Riyadh shifting its focus away from renewables, the nuclear programme is expected to gain some momentum moving forward.

In April 2015, KA-Care signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for joint cooperation with France on peaceful uses of nuclear energy and training and development of nuclear cadres. In March, KA-Care signed a MoU with South Korea on the peaceful development of nuclear power.

It is understood that SEC and Saudi Aramco are both set to push forward with renewable energy projects in the coming months, however, these will be on a much smaller scale than what had been planned under the original 54GW programme.