Siemens Energy is preparing to play a larger role in rebuilding electricity systems in Iraq and Syria as the two countries seek to restore capacity lost to conflict and lack of investment, the company’s new regional managing director said.
While governments across the Middle East race to expand generation due to data centre-driven growth, ageing infrastructure remains a major challenge, Hussein Shoukry told The National in an interview in Dubai.
Syria is generating less than 20 per cent of its pre-war electricity output, with much of its grid destroyed. Mr Shoukry confirmed high-level discussions with senior officials in Syria but did not disclose whether Siemens Energy would be developing projects in consortium with other players. Siemens Energy built several major plants in Syria before the war, including the 1.5GW Deir Ali power plant, which is the country's biggest.
“We are going to definitely play our part in the reconstruction of Syria. We are not going to leave Syria alone. We’re going to help, and we’re going to be there, whether it’s gas, whether it’s grid,” Mr Shoukry said.
In Iraq, Siemens Energy plans to work with partners in adding about 14GW of capacity as financing options gradually improve. The company already has 11.65GW of installed capacity in Iraq.
“We have a large number of projects that we are developing, and it depends very much on how fast the government is moving and how fast the financing is being put into place,” Mr Shoukry said.
Capacity growth
Siemens Energy is expanding across the Middle East. The company has about 117GW of capacity in the region, including installed assets and projects under execution. Saudi Arabia accounts for about 33GW of total capacity, with about 20GW already installed. About 13GW of capacity is under contract or execution, including 7.6GW of newly signed gas-fired power plants. In the UAE, the company has about 13GW installed.
“In the UAE, while nothing is formally signed yet, we are engaged in ongoing discussions and continue to evaluate opportunities as projects move through their approval processes,” Mr Shoukry said.
Even under conservative assumptions, data centres will require about 3GW of extra gas-fired capacity within four to five years, Mr Shoukry said, quoting market projections. “We don’t know how fast we’re going to expand there, so we have to prepare,” he said. “The number can go up to 10GW,” he added.
Siemens Energy said on Wednesday it recorded its highest-ever order intake for its gas business in the first quarter, with group orders rising by a third to €17.6 billion ($20.9 billion) in the first three months of the year. Orders in the Europe, Middle East and CIS segment climbed 17.5 per cent to €8.135 billion, giving the region the largest share of total order value.
Mr Shoukry said that while attention has moved towards the surge in demand from AI, energy transition remains critical to security. The current push to invest in more capacity to meet demand could slow the introduction of renewable energy.
A slow transition
“We should be able to keep climate change on the radar because it’s not going to go away,” he said.
This has also had an impact on hydrogen projects, once seen in the region as central to decarbonisation. These have now been delayed as governments prioritise feeding electricity directly into national grids. However, Mr Shoukry expects hydrogen to make a comeback.
“We thought it would happen faster,” he said. “The sudden growth in demand has put hydrogen a little bit on the back burner. When systems stabilise, hydrogen will become more attractive again."
Siemens Energy is developing turbines capable of burning high hydrogen blends, with some units able to run on about 50 per cent hydrogen today and others approaching full hydrogen capacity.
Grid overhaul
About half of existing grids in the region will require overhaul in the coming years, Mr Shoukry added.
“Worldwide, we see that there’s a lot of gigawatts actually on hold today. They cannot go into the grid because the grid is not ready to take them,” he said.
“If you have generation and you don’t have the grid, you will have a problem."
The Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency also sounded the alarm on ageing grid infrastructure in a report published in September 2025.
“Expanding and modernising grids, as well as increasing energy storage, are critical to tripling renewables capacity by 2030,” the agency said. It estimated that about $670 billion of investment is required annually between 2025 and 2030 to strengthen electricity grids.
Without upgrades, these grids are also unlikely to support renewable energy, which is intermittent and requires more reliability to ensure security of supply.
