The Petroleum Ministry admitted Tuesday that there is a shortage in the gas supply for power stations and explained that some stations refuse to use diesel instead, fearing it would destroy the boilers. Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal said that he reached an agreement with Electricity Minister Saad Mahmoud Balbaa to operate power stations with diesel fuel and fuel oil instead of gas to solve the problem. The country experienced frequent power cuts throughout August, but the electricity supply stabilized last month. Many governorates saw protests against almost daily blackouts, while some activists have called on people to refrain from paying electricity bills. More than 150 villages in Gharbiya Governorate experienced outages for over three hours under the pretext of easing loads, drawing the anger of residents and prompting them to threaten mass demonstrations outside the governorate headquarters to demand the dismissal of electricity officials for failing to solve the crisis. Dozens of villages in Fayoum Governorate were left in complete darkness for long periods and in Minya Governorate medical facilities announced a state of emergency as they lacked the fuel needed to run the generators during outages, putting patients at risk. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
