The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Lately, a number of regions all over Egypt have witnessed power outages, leading many to question the reason behind it. This follows the government’s announcement that it is attempting to reduce electricity loads in all governorates, unlocking memories many have worked hard to forget. Back in 2013, we went through a similar crisis, yet this time at least, they’re taking a rather systematic approach to minimise the collateral damages. 

Reasons Behind it 

In an official statement, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly declared that starting July 19th, the power outage will occur daily. As a result of the severe heatwave the country is currently witnessing, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in some governorates, electricity consumption has increased drastically, reaching its maximum usage of 34.5K megawatts during peak hours of the day. 

As a result of the significant increase, there has been a consequential increase in the consumption of gas used in electricity production. Since then, there has been a noticeable decrease in gas pressure. It’s claimed that the alternating load reduction could restore gas pressures by July 25th, as per the Prime Minister.  

 Load-Reducing System 

On Saturday, The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company announced the implementation of their load-reducing system. Electric currents will be disconnected once daily, either 10 minutes to or past the hour, for a whole hour. With that said, there will be twenty minutes of terror every hour as we await to see if it’s blackout time yet again. In their statement, they advised refraining from elevator usage during the announced period for safety purposes.  

Citizen’s Reactions 

Social media activists have expressed outrage over the timing of implementing the system since the deadly heatwave has hit Egypt hard. However, there are also those who fully support the government’s decision and believe in the need for consumption rationalisation.