Although the recent decrease in fuel subsidies is a positive sign, Egypt continues to be plagued with power outages. Rolling blackouts hit the North African country on September 4, the worst that has been seen so far.
Thursday’s outage has crippled several industries, including the capital city’s metro station and various media outlets. A source told Alternative Energy Africa that there was a problem with one of the main power stations in the 10th of Ramadan while Electricity Minister Ahmed Shaker told ONTV channel that the massive outage was due to technical problems.
The Egyptian Electric Holding Co. (EEHC) said that at 6:15 am, a technical malfunction took place at a 500 kilowatts (kW) power transformer station. Power outages in the Cairo neighborhood of Maadi began at 1 am with another at 5 am – well before the 6:15 am “technical malfunction” time. In addition, 500 kW is small compared to the major power that is tunneled through plants like the West Cairo power station at 300 megawatts (MW) and Cairo North II generating 750 MW. It has also been reported that parts of Upper Egypt, including Aswan, were without power yet residents in Alexandria remain unaffected.
Spreads across the Egyptian Stock Exchange are down as many businesses are struggling with the instability in electricity. And with the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and EEHC giving vague, almost improbable possibilities as to the worse-than-usual power crisis that has turned into nation-wide rolling blackouts, it remains uncertain when the situation will stabilize.
Many people assume that Egypt’s latest power struggles are the result of instability since its 2011 revolution; however, Alternative Energy Africa reported in March 2010 that the country faced a natural gas growth rate estimated at about 8% annually with locally produced natural gas only coming in at 6% annually. And Egypt generates 86% of its electricity via natural gas.
Coupled with fuel subsidies that strained the economy, the country was long overdue for a power problem. Several prospects at renewable energy have emerged, but even the Zafarana – formerly Africa’s largest wind farm only recently bested by Ethiopia’s Ashegoda – is not at full capacity. Other renewable energy projects have been delayed as a result of political hurdles and the inability to meet financial close.
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