Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly explained on Tuesday the government's plan to address the electricity outage crisis during the summer period. He detailed the number of power reduction hours for the upcoming days, while commercial shops will close at 10 PM starting in July to "rationalize consumption."
In a press conference following a government meeting chaired by him, Madbouly discussed a "proactive plan to permanently resolve the electricity issue throughout the summer," allocating $1.18 billion to purchase the necessary petroleum products. He confirmed that "electricity cuts will be completely halted by the third week of July after the full shipments of gas and mazut arrive," meaning that for this week, there will still be 3 hours of daily cuts (load shedding).
Starting next week, daily power cuts will reduce to two hours until the end of the third week of July, after which all power cuts will cease during the summer for citizens and all establishments. The plan is to completely end power outages by the end of 2024.
Madbouly also mentioned that the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum had proposed increasing the additional mazut reserves due to the expected extreme heat. A request was made to import an additional 300,000 tons of mazut, costing $180 million, which received immediate approval. The additional mazut is expected to begin arriving in Egypt next week, but it will take time for all necessary quantities to arrive before completely halting power cuts.
He noted that in light of the unprecedented crisis that occurred on Monday, where the situation was very challenging, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi directed an exceptional intervention to alleviate suffering. Consequently, a meeting was held with ministers, and coordination was made with the Minister of Finance and Central Bank Governor to devise a proactive plan to significantly reduce power cuts in anticipation of increased temperatures, aiming for "zero power outages" during the summer.
Madbouly clarified that the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Petroleum indicated that Egypt would need approximately an additional $1 billion to get through the summer, alongside the $180 million for the additional mazut, which totals 57 billion Egyptian pounds. He instructed the Minister of Petroleum to immediately start contracting for these shipments for summer delivery.
He emphasized the necessity for a rationalization plan for electricity consumption, stating that he requested the Minister of Local Development to execute the first steps of this plan by deciding to close all commercial stores at 10 PM across the country starting next month, except for pharmacies, supermarkets, and restaurants, which will close by 1 AM at the latest.
Regarding the decision to extend power cuts to 3 hours recently, Madbouly explained that a technical malfunction lasting 12 hours at a gas field in a neighboring country caused an additional hour of load shedding.
