Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and Minister of Petroleum Mineral Resources Sherif Ismail apologised to Egyptians for rolling power outages experienced across the country in a joint statement on Monday. The ministers said they expected power outages to continue in some areas, conducted "to maintain stability of the electrical grid". The statement pointed to seasonal rise in temperatures having a "negative impact on natural gas supplies and hence the generating capacity of power plants," according to state-owned MENA. Shaker and Ismail also called on Egyptians to reduce electricity consumption by avoiding using household appliances between the hours of 6pm and 11pm "to help reduce the periods of [power outages]". Last month Shaker acknowledged that the interim government would be unable to prevent power cuts during the summer. "Eliminating blackouts and reducing loads this summer is impossible," he said to state-owned Al-Ahram, adding that the government would work to reduce the amount and frequency of the outages. Two weeks ago Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb stated that energy subsidy reforms would begin in July, stressing that hikes in electricity prices would not affect middle and low income segments of society. At the end of last month Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development Mostafa Madbouly announced plans to build solar panels on some government buildings in an effort to ameliorate Egypt's energy crisis and reduce stress on the electrical grid. By 2020, the government aims to produce 20% of the country's energy through new and renewable energy, including solar power, former Electricity Minister Ahmed Emam had said during the Future Investment Opportunities in the New and Renewable Energy summit in February. Around 12% of the electricity will be generated using wind energy while the remaining 8% will be produced through "other renewable energy sources".
