To save power: shops in Egypt to close 1 hour earlier

CAIRO – 25 June 2024: In order to save power, starting next week, the government's decision for shops to close at 10:00 p.m. instead of 11:00 p.m. will become effective, except for supermarkets, pharmacies, and restaurants that are allowed to be open until 1:00 a.m.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Tuesday in a press conference on the electricity crisis. He clarified that Egypt did not have a problem with power generation or transmission, noting that Egypt is connected to neighboring countries with a grid that enables the import and export of natural gas.

The prime minister stated that the electricity crisis worsened on Monday because a gas field in one of the neighboring states got out of service for 24 hours. Thus, the duration of electricity cuts had to be prolonged – to be three hours instead of two per day - as the government could not risk to empty the grid from all gas as that could engender a domino effect causing all power plants to stop working.

To avoid the recurrence of the crisis in case of similar emergencies and in the face of heatwaves expected in July and August, the government will raise its reserves of fuel consumed by power plants by 300,000 tons of mazut worth $180M and whose delivery will begin next week

Further, to stop electricity cuts in summer from the third week of July until September, the government will import other fuels worth $1 billion in addition to the $180 million worth of mazut.

Madbouli equally pledged commitment to set a plan for avoiding the resumption of power cuts in September until the end of the year. As for the meantime, due to the gas field crisis in the neighboring state, the electricity will be cut daily for three hours instead of two until the end of this week.