Siemens Energy redesigns Gulf power plants to withstand drone attacks

Siemens Energy is redesigning power plants in the Gulf to withstand drone and missile attacks, drawing on lessons from Ukraine, as the Iran war forces governments to rethink how they protect critical electricity infrastructure.

The German industrial group is working with customers to reinforce existing facilities with protective shelters and barriers, while considering moving parts of new power plants underground, Hussein Shoukry, its managing director for the Middle East and Africa, told The National at Adipec in Abu Dhabi.

“Energy security now is national security,” Mr Shoukry said. “We’re protecting our power infrastructure in the same way we protect a military base.”

The changes could add to the cost of building power plants in a region already facing rising electricity demand and pressure to expand generation capacity.

Siemens Energy, which was spun off from German engineering conglomerate Siemens in 2020, supplies gas turbines, power generation equipment and electricity grid technology. It has about 100 gigawatts of installed generation capacity across the region, with about another 15 gigawatts of potential projects in the pipeline, according to Mr Shoukry.

Its regional operations include about 20 gigawatts installed in Saudi Arabia, with another 13 gigawatts under contract or execution, and 13 gigawatts installed in the UAE, according to figures provided to The National earlier this year.

The company employs more than 4,000 people across 29 offices in the Middle East and Africa and recorded €9 billion ($10.4 billion) in regional orders in its 2025 financial year. Globally, it generated €39.1 billion in revenue in the same period.

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How the Gulf is redesigning its power infrastructure

Exposed infrastructure

The Iran war, which began in February, has exposed the vulnerability of power plants, transmission networks and other energy facilities across the Gulf, raising questions about how governments can protect assets that are difficult to conceal or relocate.

“The power plants and the grid infrastructure, everybody knows where they are,” Mr Shoukry said. “There is no protection around these critical facilities.”

Siemens Energy is drawing on its experience supporting Ukraine’s electricity system, where repeated attacks on energy infrastructure have forced operators to strengthen protection and develop ways to restore power quickly.

For existing Gulf facilities, customers are seeking designs to reinforce structures and shield vulnerable equipment. New projects could require different layouts, including placing some installations underground.

Mr Shoukry acknowledged the measures were expensive.

“It’s costly, but it’s worth it because we saw the damage some countries have sustained when their energy infrastructure [was] hit,” he said. “This is the new world we’re living in.”

The security concerns are not confined to the Gulf. Countries including Poland and Germany are also reviewing the resilience of their electricity systems, he added.

Show caption: Siemens Energy has around 100 gigawatts of installed generat…

Supply chain rethink

The war has also exposed weaknesses in the supply chains needed to build and maintain power infrastructure.

With shipping through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, Siemens Energy is examining ways to transport large equipment in smaller sections and assemble it at project sites, reducing reliance on moving heavy machinery by sea.

Customers are also seeking to hold larger inventories of critical components, some of which have lengthy manufacturing and delivery times.

The company is training more engineers locally in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other regional markets after flight cancellations during the conflict made it difficult to bring in overseas specialists.

However, Mr Shoukry cautioned against efforts by individual countries to become entirely self-sufficient in manufacturing energy equipment.

“Isolation is never going to work,” he said. “You’re never going to be able to produce everything in every single country. It’s not efficient and it’s simply not doable.”

Demand outpacing supply

The additional security requirements come as the region faces a steep increase in electricity demand from industrial expansion, population growth and electrification.

Power generation capacity across the region will need to increase by about 50 per cent over the next five to six years, Mr Shoukry estimated. That adds to pressure on manufacturers already struggling to keep pace with orders. Siemens Energy is “completely sold out” on gas turbines and expanding its factories to catch up, he said.

Oman has been “a real success story” for the company this year, Mr Shoukry said. In July, Siemens Energy won contracts to supply and service equipment for the Misfah and Duqm gas-fired power plants, which have a combined capacity of about 2.6 gigawatts. It expects to announce more projects in the sultanate “very soon”, he added.

The company expects electricity grids to become a bigger focus of investment over the next decade as governments modernise ageing networks and connect new generation capacity.

It recently announced a $150 million investment in a transformer factory in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, as part of its efforts to expand regional manufacturing.

The conflict has not derailed renewable energy plans, Mr Shoukry said. Solar and wind installations, which are generally spread across multiple locations, could offer a security advantage over large centralised power stations.

“I have not heard one customer slowing down” on renewables, he said.

For governments, resilience is becoming an additional consideration alongside affordability, reliability and sustainability. “We don’t want one to replace the other,” Mr Shoukry said. “[We] just add another component that didn’t exist before.”