State’s electricity grid able to secure power supply: Minister

CAIRO – 20 July 2023: The status of the state’s electricity grid in general and the electricity transmission network, in particular, is strong enough to secure electric power supply for citizens nationwide, said Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker on Thursday.

"The current power outage crisis is temporary due to the lack of fuel," he added, noting that it can be similar to the outage crisis Egypt suffered from before 2014, according to Youm7. In 2013, Egypt suffered a crisis of power outage that led several people to demonstrate against the pro-Muslim Brotherhood late President Mohamed Morsi.

Shaker said that the state’s network is capable of generating up to 20,000 megawatts but the citizens’ consumption exceeded 35,000 megawatts during the last two days.

“Rationalizing consumption is inevitable during these days to contribute to reducing the hours of load shedding due to the lack of fuel,” the minister noted, saying, "I turned off the air conditioning in my house to help reduce pressure on the network."

Egypt will continue to implement load shedding until the middle of next week amid a drop in gas pressure in the electricity networks due to the heatwave striking the country, according to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Madbouly revealed that the state started implementing load shedding two days ago due to the ongoing heatwave that led to a significant increase in electricity consumption, posing severe pressure on the power networks and resulting in a drop in their gas pressure.