The Egyptian government recently expressed its commitment to resolving the power outage crisis that has plagued the country since the end of July. According to cabinet spokesperson Mohamed al-Homosany, measures have been taken to put an end to this problematic situation.
In a telephone interview with the TeN channel, Homosany announced that Egypt would import 300,000 tonnes of diesel worth $180 million to cope with any sudden increase in consumption. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly also spoke of an urgent plan to provide the fuel needed to operate power plants.
This plan notably includes a billion-dollar envelope for the import of more natural gas, as well as efforts to end load shedding for the rest of the summer. Fuel deliveries will be made in stages, with a first series planned for the beginning of July, which will reduce outages to two hours. Once all deliveries are made by the third week of July, the power outages will end, and the necessary resources will be mobilized to end load shedding permanently after the summer season.
Homosany explained that the increase in outage hours observed on Monday was due to a technical problem that occurred at the same time as a sharp increase in electricity consumption. He stressed that the government was working to provide the necessary energy to the factories.
Furthermore, the plan also includes closing all stores at 10 p.m. to reduce energy costs, with the exception of supermarkets.
These measures taken by the Egyptian government aim to ensure a stable and reliable energy supply for the entire country, thus putting in place concrete solutions to resolve the crisis of power outages impacting the population.