‘Expired' cables the cause of Giza outages: Source

Egypt Independent

30-07-2025

An official source at the Ministry of Electricity said that the cause of the power outage at the Dahab Island Power Plant is that the connecting cables to the plant are 'expired.'
The Ministry of Electricity announced in a statement that the damaged cable #2 had been repaired to alleviate the crisis until full power is restored.
The official source added that the connecting cables to the plant urgently need to be replaced, along a length of 3.5 kilometers, due to their expiration date.
They are entirely underground and require time and permits from several authorities.
The source indicated that a project to add two new circuits to the plant was awarded to a company more than a year ago. These circuits would have significantly enhanced the plant's capacity, but the company has not implemented them since 2024.
When the power outage crisis occurred, the company was contacted, and confirmed that it had not yet obtained any excavation permits from the railways authority.
Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat contacted the Ministry of Transport and obtained these permits on Monday evening.
Citizens suffer under outages
While the Giza Governorate announced in a statement on Monday that repair work on the high-voltage cable in Saqiyat Mekki area had been completed and that electricity was gradually being restored to all affected areas, Al-Masry Al-Youm's tour revealed that Saqiyat Mekki cable was still under repair.
Workers said it had burned down again after it was repaired.
Residents highlighted their suffering due to water and electricity outages amid the intense heat wave, stressing that 'one woman infected her cesarean section wound due to sweat and the lack of water.'
Alaa Mahrous, one of the affected residents, said his wife stumbled on the stairs of the building while descending in the dark and suffered a broken foot.
Bakery owners have resorted to purchasing generators costing up to LE35,000 due to all their bakeries being out of service.
The water and electricity outages have forced residents to leave their homes. Residents of Omraniya area in Giza were forced to move to family and relatives residencies in unaffected areas as the crisis continued.
The Electricity Ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday that crews working to repair Cable 2 have restored power to distribution network, and are currently securing electricity supply to areas within Dahab Island transformer station.
The station is now operating through cables 1 and 2, mitigating the severity of the crisis until the power supply is fully stabilized within the station.
The statement added that the ministry continues to ensure the necessary power supply to all vital and strategic facilities.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm