CAIRO - Due to a power shortage locally and internationally, Egypt's Ministry of Energy and Electricity has devised a new way to reduce power consumption in homes and factories through pre-paid cards that can be used with a new kind of digital meters. "The ministry started a new scheme for paying electricity bills through fixing meters that use pre-paid cards instead of monthly bills helping the electricity sector do without a metre-reader and a billing clerk," said Mahmoud Sultan, an Electricity Ministry official. He added that the new meters had been fixed in the governorates of 6th October, Damietta, Daqahlia and Kafr el-Sheikh. "The experiment will then be generalised in all provinces nationwide. However, the meters are fixed at the demand of consumers," Sultan told the Egyptian official TV. The Ministry of Electricity is devising long-term solutions to the energy crisis, including the use of solar energy to produce electricity and improving the capacity of lighting in Government buildings. This country of 80 million people suffered frequent power outages last summer. "The new scheme of pre-paid card meters will also help end the complaints by consumers about exaggerated electricity bills," Sultan said. He pointed out that the new meters would be fixed for free to encourage citizens to rationalise their consumption. Egyptians complained that power cuts occurred in their homes during the fasting month of Ramadan was very common, while others complained that lowered power currents damaged their electrical appliances. The Government said last summer it would continue decreasing electric output pending the end of a heat-wave, which saw temperatures climb to 40 degrees Celsius, leading to electricity blackouts in most Egyptian areas. Sultan said that the ministry had set up a number of outlets to sell the pre-paid cards, which could work without credit for three days to give the consumer a chance to re-charge them. "This is a great way to help rationalise the use of electricity," he said. The country's estimated generation capacity of 25,000 megawatts has been sorely tested, with consumption hitting over 23,000 megawatts. "It is a problem of management and not capacity," said Wael Ziada, the chief economist at the Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes. Egypt is planning to build its first nuclear power reactor in the el-Dabaa area near Mersa Matrouh.
