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Power cuts prompt protests in Upper Egypt, Nile Delta Increasingly frequent blackouts – which government blames on Egypt's overburdened electricity grid – lead to minor demonstrations in Gharbiya, Aswan
Ongoing power outages nationwide – which have coincided with sharply rising summertime temperatures – have prompted Egyptians in several governorates to hit the streets in protest. The electricity ministry has blamed the frequent blackouts on fuel shortages and an overloaded national electricity grid, as air-conditioning usage continues to increase amid ongoing heat waves. According to official figures, Egypt's national electricity consumption this summer is expected to rise to 29,500 megawatts per day. The country's total daily electricity-production capacity, however, currently stands at some 27,000 megawatts. At a Tuesday meeting of the Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt's parliament), Electricity Minister Ahmed Emam said that Egypt required some LE200 million to boost its flagging energy sector, along with another LE30 billion annually to build a string of new power stations. Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of residents of the Nile Delta's Gharbiya governorate blocked the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road with burning tyres to protest increasingly frequent daytime power outages, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported. In a related development, dozens of residents of the northern Damietta governorate – known for its local furniture-manufacturing industry – were reportedly angered by a spate of power cuts on Tuesday that affected their industrial output. And on Sunday, dozens of residents of the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan forcibly halted local railway activity to express their unhappiness with the frequent blackouts. One day earlier, Egypt signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to link the two nations' electricity grids, a project worth some $1.6 billion and expected to generate an additional 3,000 megawatts of power daily. Egypt currently has around 220 electricity generators nationwide, which consume roughly 100 million cubic metres of fuel on a daily basis, according to recent statements by the electricity minister. Notably, the government recently increased the daily quantities of natural gas supplied to power stations from 77 million to 84 million cubic metres in an attempt to meet rising electricity demand. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/73205.aspx
