无界电力：开拓能源转型的下一个前沿

How can countriesovercome the thornyobstacles hinderingambitious cross-borderprojects? A proven,centuries-old modeladapted for the modernworld could hold the key. Contacts DubaiAnthony YamminePartner+971-55-981-1998anthony.yammine@strategyand.pwc.com RiyadhShihab ElboraiPartner+971-56-501-9003shihab.elborai@strategyand.pwc.com Carmen StoianSenior Consultant+971-54-535-8824carmen.stoian@strategyand.pwc.com Ihab NouwayhedSenior Consultant+971-50-729-7087ihab.nouwayhed@strategyand.pwc.com Mohamad DarwichPrincipal+971-50-691-2523mohamad.darwich@strategyand.pwc.com About the authors Dr. Shihab Elboraiis a partner with Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network. Basedin Riyadh, he has 20 years of energy consulting experience, focusing on advising utilities,governments, and leading energy players on integrated energy strategy, sector restructuring, andinstitutional and regulatory setup. His work spans governance and operating model design forlarge utility organizations, long-term energy security and energy mix planning, and the design ofelectricity market structures to support competition and renewables development. Anthony Yammineis a partner with Strategy& Middle East, based in Dubai. He has 15 yearsof consulting experience focused on utilities; he supports governments, regulators, and utilitycompanies on sector strategy, restructuring, and market reform. His work spans energy policy andregulation, tariff frameworks, unbundling and privatization pathways, and end-state operating modeldesign and implementation road maps. He also has deep experience in utilities investments andjoint ventures, having supported end-to-end deal execution and investment strategy across thepower and water value chain. Mohamad Darwichis a principal with Strategy& Middle East, based in Riyadh. He has 19 yearsof experience in strategy consulting and the energy industry, advising public-sector entities andutilities on corporate strategy, sector regulation, transformation activation, and performancemanagement. His work focuses on sector restructuring and power export programs, operationsoptimization, and governance and change management aimed at enabling delivery at scale. Dr. Carmen Stoianis a senior consultant with Strategy& Middle East, based in Dubai. She hasmore than four years of consulting experience and seven years of experience in business services,supporting clients on strategic business planning, organizational assessment, and market andindustry analysis. Her work includes growth strategy development for government-linked entitiesand commercial and operational due diligence engagements, as well as value creation programsfocused on operating expense optimization and business planning in the energy sector. Ihab Nouwayhedis a senior consultant with Strategy& Middle East. He has experience acrossstrategy consulting and design consulting, with a focus on energy, sustainability, and electricalnetworks. He has supported clients on strategy development, feasibility studies, commercialmodels (including power export assessments), and business planning, as well as governance andoperating model work for cross-sector councils and national programs. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The global energy transition has reached a major turning point.Renewables are scaling rapidly, reshaping markets, investment patterns,and the architecture of global power systems. Indeed, 585 gigawatts (GW)of new capacity was added in 2024 alone, accounting for nearly 93 percentof all new generation.1 Yet, paradoxically, the more the world builds, the more energy remains stranded.Thousandsofgigawatts of clean electricity are now curtailed (that is, intentionally reduced)each year for lack of transmission. Germany curtailed 1,389 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solarpower in 2024—enough to supply 400,000 homes, based on our analysis.2Similar wasteoccurs in China’s northwest, California’s Central Valley, and Saudi Arabia’s deserts.3 This mismatch between renewable generation growth and transmission capacity has becomethe defining constraint of the energy transition. Whether the next stage of decarbonizationsucceeds will depend less on how much renewable capacity is installed than on how effectivelynations connect it to demand. Electricity trade across borders—power without borders—offers one solution. It linkssurpluswith scarcity, balances renewable intermittency across time zones, and turnsstrandedgeneration into tradable value. This solution can resolve a part of the cross-borderenergy imbalance while complementing other, more focused, solutions, such as locatingenergy-intensive industries closer to renewable energy sources. These links could redefine energy geopolitics if policy and financing align. Solar power fromthe deserts of Arabia could supply regional or European demand; hydropower from centralAfrica could stabilize southern grids; and Asian interconnections could underpin the region’smanufacturing expansion. Realizing this vision will require more than tech