The former head of the Electricity Utility Regulatory Authority, Hafez Salmawy, said Sunday that the nation is facing an issue with fuel shortages as temperatures rise, leading to more consumption, which requires increasing load shedding hours.
Salmawy’s remarks came during an interview with Ahmed Moussa’s TV show “Ala Massoulity” (On My Responsibility).
“We have additional power plants and there is no problem with producing electricity, but in order to produce more electricity we need larger quantities of fuel,” he explained, adding “We exceeded 35,000 megawatts of electricity use in July.”
He also said that up to 18 shipments of natural gas have been contracted to solve the operating dilemma with power plants, and the shipments will begin arriving next month, at a financial cost of $1.5 billion or LE60-80 billion.
Regarding a solution he said that, “We must benefit from Japan’s experience in reducing electricity consumption after a problem occurred in their nuclear station, which saved them consumption amounting to about 18 percent more than the percentage we need in Egypt”.
Salmawy also noted that there are smart electrical devices that consume half and a third of the normal electricity consumption in traditional devices.
He added that when the electricity is cut off, fuses in the central panel should be disconnected and operated sequentially to avoid damaging these devices due to excessive voltage.
