Egypt's blackouts return

By the end of last month, several governorates -- including Cairo -- started to experience power cuts shortly after promises by government officials that there would not be recurrent blackouts like in the previous years.

According to Mahmoud Balbaa, president of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, last week's blackouts that took place in areas in Cairo, Beni Sweif and Fayoum were caused by a shortage of natural gas and diesel in some power stations, leading to a loss of about 3,000 megawatts of the national grid's capacity. The shortage happened after one gas field experienced a sudden malfunction, which has now been repaired, according to Balbaa.

During the last few years there was a dramatic rise in electricity consumption due to the dramatic increase in the number of air conditioning units from 700,000 in 2006 to five million in 2011. With all of these units working during peak hours, which are two hours following dusk, the national grid was, apparently, unable to handle the pressure which forced the government to resort to daily and random power cuts in order to prevent the grid from collapsing.

About 40 per cent of total electricity production is consumed by homes, while industry uses 35 per cent. In industrialised countries, home consumption is lower than that of the industrial sector.
During the last few months, as Egypt prepared for a heated presidential contest, preparations were also underway for a not-so-cool summer.

In order to cope with rising demand on energy, some LE13 billion was allocated for an emergency plan announced by the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to increase the national grid's capacity by adding 2,400 megawatts through a number of immediate projects. The total capacity of the grid is approximately 28,000 megawatts. The maximum load on the grid this year was reported 28 May, reaching 22,500 megawatts.