Govt imposes country-wide power rationing plan after complete halt in Israeli gas supply
An unnamed government source broke the news to state-aligned outlet Masrawy, stating that the plan is 'nothing new' and marks a return to the state's electricity-saving measures implemented in previous years.
Israel completely halted its natural gas supply to Egypt over the weekend, after shutting down production amid its military aggression on Iran, sources told Mada Masr on Friday.
The stoppage prompted Egypt to introduce the rationing plan, which entails reducing lighting in public spaces and enforcing closing hours for commercial establishments, while residential buildings are to remain exempt.
'Warnings' were issued by the Local Development Ministry to governors across the country for the power rationing plan to be strictly monitored, another unnamed source in the ministry told Masrawy later on Monday.
By evening, directives had been passed in Giza, Alexandria, Daqahlia, Aswan and other governorates to begin and monitor the plan's enforcement.
Lighting reductions began that night on streets, roads, and in government buildings. Meanwhile, the summer official opening and closing hours for shops, malls and workshops — announced in April — were now to be 'strictly' implemented. Hospitals and service buildings were exempt, as were residential buildings, which had faced hours-long cuts in the past two summers due to surging seasonal consumption.
According to the government source that spoke to Masrawy, the plan aims to reduce pressure on power plants. Natural gas remains Egypt's primary energy input for electricity generation, accounting for 75 to 96 percent of power in 2019. Mazut, a crude oil byproduct and cheaper alternative, has also been used by the government to fuel power plants, though its domestic production only covers 12 percent of Egypt's electricity needs, prompting the government to expand efforts to ramp up output or imports.
The plan's re-implementation comes a few days after Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly addressed the public in a press conference on Saturday, promising to avoid renewed blackouts while calling on citizens to ration their usage and bear in mind the 'huge financial burden' on the state. He added that diesel reserves are double those of last summer.
Egypt first implemented systematic residential blackouts in July 2023, prompted by surging summer demand, a sharp decline in domestic gas production and a halt in Israeli gas imports since it launched its war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Egypt's strategy at the time included rolling blackouts in residential areas, applied at varying lengths depending on the area.
While residential areas in Cairo faced outages of one to three hours, farther afield, the blackouts ran much longer. Areas in southern Egypt suffered six-hour blackouts, which extended to 13 hours the following year, in 2024.
The North Coast and Marsa Matruh were exempted to 'protect' citizens on their summer breaks.
Madbuly's statements came amid uncertainty around the extent and duration of the natural gas shortage.
After Israel attacked Iran over the weekend, a governmental source told Mada Masr that Egypt's imports of Israeli gas had completely stopped. A former Petroleum Ministry official said that while the supply did not completely stop, it dropped to its lowest levels.
The decline in natural gas imports has already affected gas supplies to the domestic industrial sector.
While Egypt still produces most of its own gas, declining output from its largest field, Zohr, and rising domestic demand have forced it to increasingly depend on Israeli imports.
Previously, the government would liquefy and export surplus volumes of Israeli gas to generate foreign currency.
But with the growing energy deficit, only small volumes of Israeli gas are being exported, with the rest used to power the national grid and support industry.
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