Egypt’s cabinet announced on Monday a plan to further reduce electricity consumption in non-strategic places, which will be implemented as of Tuesday morning, after coordination between the Ministries of Electricity and Petroleum.
The measures come as Egypt faces severe power cuts due to high temperatures and increased demand amid a foreign currency shortage to provide the needed fuel for the massive electricity stations the state had built over the past few years.
Nader Saad, the official spokesperson for the cabinet, stated that the load shedding plan will be applied in all governorates, except Matrouh, South Sinai, and Red Sea, “due to their low electricity consumption rates”.
According to the plan of the Ministry of Electricity, in the event of any emergency breakdowns during the day in any area outside the load shedding plan, the ministry would be notified, and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources would provide petroleum supplies required for the operation of power plants.
The Crisis Committee decided, during its last meeting on Monday, to continue coordination between the Ministries of Transport and Local Development and the National Roads Company, to implement the consumption reduction plan in main roads.
With regard to the role of the Ministry of Local Development, the committee stressed the need to continue coordination with the Ministry of Interior to reduce the percentage of road lighting in various governorates, in addition to emphasizing the reduction of external lighting for government buildings, and the formation of committees to ensure that shops are closed on the scheduled dates, with guidance to reduce lighting in the streets of cities and villages, and to provide the committee daily with the consumption rates of the governorates.
The plan also stated that all sports games should be played during the morning until 6 pm in August and September.
The committee’s decisions indicated the necessity of continuing to intensify the security presence in the areas of electricity consumption reduction.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that the government will work from home on Sundays to save energy and that additional shipments of diesel fuel will be imported to meet demand, in a bid to address the current power cuts.
Madbouly said that the government has been using all available natural gas and diesel reserves to operate power plants at maximum capacity to meet high consumption rates during a heat wave.
He noted that the actual gas and diesel consumption for the past 10 days (before the conference) has reached around 144 to 146 million cubic meters per day, with Wednesday’s consumption alone reaching 152 million cubic meters. “If those measures were not implemented, the daily consumption would have been more than 160 to 165 million cubic meters, which was not available for a crisis lasting 10 days.”
