Power Crisis in Egypt amid Elections

Without warning, Egypt cut power in many areas throughout Cairo (estimated at over 50%) on May 22 lasting three hours from 5 pm to 8 pm as the country prepares for what is supposed to be its first ‘truly’ democratic elections beginning on May 23. Residents throughout Cairo suffered from repeated power cuts throughout the day, but everything stood still for the long period with many rushing to fuel up at local gas stations once power resumed amid fears and rumors of repeated outages over the upcoming days.

The ruling military plans to spend nearly $1 billion on diesel from July to September which will dig into the pockets of a country that continues on an economic downturn as a result of its revolution. In 2008, Egypt’s installed generating capacity stood at 23.4 GW with plans to expand through projects in natural gas, nuclear, and renewable energy. The US Energy Information Administration said, “Due to major recent discoveries, natural gas is likely to be the primary growth engine of Egypt’s energy sector for the foreseeable future.” Natural gas is the main source of energy for 32 power stations in Egypt.

The North African country uses 88,285,000,000 kWh of electricity with 81% of that figure generated via fossil fuels, including natural gas. Over 65% of Egypt’s power generation capacity comes from natural gas and while the country produces a substantial amount of the hydrocarbon, a portion of that amount is exported. In 2009, gas exports were on the rise; however, due to an increase in domestic consumption a moratorium was placed on new export contracts and the country’s exports have decreased steadily since.

It should be noted that at the same time Egypt is experiencing power cuts, the government resumed natural gas exports through the Arab Gas Pipeline to Jordan. While the exports to Jordan are not as high as they once were, the gas leaving the country could perplex some Egyptian citizens while they are sitting in the dark. While the country houses Africa’s largest wind farm (the Zafarana) and has substantial hydropower (mostly from the Aswan dam) with enormous solar power potential, continued economic strife will ensue if the electricity crisis is not contained.

It is rumored that repeated power outages will continue over the upcoming days and speculation is mounting as to the timing of the unorganized load shedding (scheduled power outages to help meet local demand) amid presidential elections. It is also suspect when only Cairo residents were affected by the power cuts considering that Cairo was the birthplace of the revolution as well as the starting point of protests that spread to other areas within Egypt.

Read the update on Egypt’s presidential elections: Voting Underway in Egypt

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