Egypt's president follows up on efforts to overcome power cuts crisis, avoid its recurrence

CAIRO – 10 August 2023: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has followed up on state’s efforts to avoid the recurrence of the power cuts crisis in the future and put different scenarios to deal with the various probabilities in this regard.

Sisi met on Thursday with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmi said in a statement.

The meeting also shed light on the huge projects and investments implemented over the past years, doubling the total production capacity from about 30 GW to nearly 60 GW.

Such efforts have enabled the steady and continuous provision of electricity to citizens nationwide, the spokesman said.

The president followed up on the measures taken by the government to overcome the current crisis and avoid its future recurrence.

During the meeting, it was explained that coordination took place from the first day between the ministries of electricity and petroleum to provide the fuel required for power stations so that they can continue operation amid the unprecedented rise in temperatures.

This has required the provision of much larger quantities of fuel to maintain the stations’ production capacities in light of the global demand for fuel in countries in and outside the region, which suffered from the same issue.

Such increase in demand has exacerbated the problem and led to the inevitability of adopting a temporary policy to reduce power loads and rationalize consumption, while continuing to obtain the necessary additional fuel and the required financial resources for that.

The meeting also noted that the state bears the large price difference between the cost of purchasing the fuel needed to operate power stations from abroad in foreign currency and the prices of subsidized electricity in the local market.

Load shedding program

Over the past month, the government has adopted load-shedding policies amid the heatwave that swept the country, causing power consumption to exceed the natural gas available to fuel the stations.

As per the load-shedding program in effect, almost all areas nationwide witness power cuts for up to two hours per day at specific times.