Following directives from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to swiftly address the electricity outages affecting the country, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli held a meeting on Tuesday with key ministers and officials to find solutions to the crisis. The aim is to reduce the duration of load shedding and ultimately resolve the issue.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek al-Mulla, Chairman of the Electricity Holding Company Gaber Desouki, Chairman of the Natural Gas Holding Company Yassin Mohamed, and other relevant officials.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Madbouli emphasised the government’s full awareness of the current electricity crisis and reassured that efforts have been underway to end this issue as soon as possible. He highlighted President Sisi’s directives to take immediate measures to reduce power outages and to implement all possible mechanisms to resolve the crisis quickly.
In light of the current situation, President Sisi instructed the government to formulate a proactive plan to manage the summer period and reduce electricity cuts. The plan, based on studies by the Ministry of Petroleum, identified a need to import additional shipments of mazut and natural gas worth $1 billion to achieve zero electricity outages. The studies revealed the necessity of increasing strategic reserves of mazut due to the heatwaves, leading to the import of 300,000 tonnes of mazut worth $180 million, which will arrive next week.
Madbouli explained that an additional $1.18 billion worth of mazut and natural gas is required to prevent electricity outages during the summer, equivalent to 57 billion Egyptian pounds. Immediate steps have been taken to procure these shipments, in coordination with the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank.
He noted that importing these shipments will take some time for contracts and delivery, with the full supply expected by the third week of July. Consequently, electricity cuts will increase to three hours daily this week, drop to two hours next week, and by the third week of July, the aim is to eliminate electricity cuts for the entire summer.
The prime minister announced a plan to conserve electricity starting next month, which includes closing all commercial shops by 10pm and restaurants by 1 am. He urged citizens to reduce electricity consumption.
Madbouli also highlighted that the recent unprecedented heatwave, which continued post-Eid al-Adha, coincided with the full return to work across the country, resulting in record electricity consumption close to 36 gigawatts before midnight yesterday. Egypt, having a regional energy network connecting it with neighbouring countries, exports surplus electricity during winter but has stopped exporting during summer and instead imports additional electricity to meet domestic needs.
He explained that Monday’s crisis was exacerbated by a technical failure in a gas field in a neighbouring country, which supplies gas to the regional network, causing a 12-hour outage. An emergency response team worked around the clock until the gas field resumed production this morning, restoring full gas supply.
Prime Minister Madbouli noted that without this external gas supply, continuing to use the gas within the internal network would have posed significant risks to the operation of all power plants, necessitating the decision to increase electricity cuts until gas supply was restored.
Finally, Madbouli reiterated that by the third week of July, after the arrival of the additional fuel shipments, the electricity outage issue is expected to be completely resolved. He emphasised that there is a need for $1 billion to import the additional mazut and natural gas necessary to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply by mid-July.
Madbouli clarified that Egypt faces no issues with power generation or transmission networks, but rather with securing fuel. Electricity generation relies heavily on two primary components: mazut (heavy fuel oil) and natural gas. The plan to cut electricity for only two hours daily is part of an effort to eliminate load shedding entirely before the end of the year.
The prime minister noted that the load shedding crisis affects not only residents but also other sectors such as industry and investment. He stressed that the government does not want any factory to be impacted by gas supply issues due to this crisis.