Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced Tuesday that most shops will now close at 10 pm, except supermarkets which will remain open until one am, starting next week as part of efforts to rationalize electricity consumption.
This comes as part of a plan to reduce power outages during summer at an estimated cost of one billion dollars, he said, in addition to contracting up to 300,000 tons of diesel shipments that will arrive at the beginning of next week at a cost of US$ 180 million.
During a press conference over the government’s plan to confront the problem of power outages, Madbouly added that load shedding will continue for three hours per day until the second week of July, and that electricity outages will be stopped starting by the third week.
June witnessed three unprecedented heat waves, the Prime Minister noted, and electricity consumption approached 36 gigawatts on Monday due to high temperatures.
He explained that Egypt stopped exporting electricity three years ago, due to the increasing consumption.
The Prime Minister reiterated his apology to the Egyptian public regarding the power cuts.
He pledged that the electricity crisis will finally be resolved by the end of this year, and stated that the issue lies not in power generation or transmission but with fuel procurement.
