(AFP Photo)
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met with Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker and Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail Sunday to discuss methods of reducing summer electricity blackouts.
During the meeting, the Ministries of Electricity and Petroleum presented their plan to provide electricity stations with fuel. They also highlighted the additional capacity that will enter the national grid, to avoid blackouts during the summer.
A government official, who requested anonymity, told Al-Borsa newspaper on Monday the plan includes pumping approximately 3.25bn cubic feet of natural gas and 40,000 tonnes of mazut daily to meet summer electricity demands.
The official added that the Ministry of Electricity will add 2100mW to the national grid by the end of May.
Al-Sisi asked the ministers to make the best use of the current electricity capacity through period maintenance to power stations. He also requested they buy necessary fuel for stations and build new stations as part of the contracts signed during the Economic Summit.
Siemens AG reached agreements with the Egyptian government to build a 4.4gW Beni Suef power plant, along with a wind power plant, President and CEO of Siemens AG Joe Kaesser said at the summit.
Al-Sisi said the electricity capacity that will be generated through the Siemens project should be pumped into the national grid within 1.5 years, to provide energy for investors.
The Ministry of Electricity plans to add 3,600mW of electrical energy next summer to overcome growing electricity consumption, Shaker announced in January. Shaker added at the time that the government signed nine agreements with the Chinese government during Al-Sisi’s visit to China. These cover the construction of power plants that operate on coal with a 20,000mW capacity over five years.
Egypt needs $12bn investment over the next five years to solve the electricity crisis, Al-Sisi said in September 2014. He noted that the electricity capacity should be increased by approximately 2,500mW every year, to be able to produce an extra amount of around 12,500mW after five years.
The electricity subsidy allocations for the fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015 amount to approximately EGP 27bn, and the government plans to decrease this figure to EGP 20bn by FY 2015/2016, according to Shaker.
