Egypt: New Strategy to End Power Crisis – Investment Minister

The government has laid out an “energy mix” strategy to end the power crisis Egypt is currently witnessing through generating 30 thousand extra megawatts of electricity, said Investment Minister Ashraf Salman on Tuesday.

Addressing the annual two-day economic conference Euromoney, Salman said that, as per the new strategy, the government will propose projects to generate four thousand megawatts of renewable energy within two weeks. The projects include generating electricity from solar energy and wind energy, with seven billion dollars worth of investments.

Salman had said on Monday the government is proposing projects to generate eight thousand megawatts with 15 billion dollars worth of investments.

Finance Minister Hany Demian told the Euromoney conference that the cabinet has tariffed the price of electricity generated from renewable energy. The tariff should be announced after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Demian added.

The finance minister said Egypt is aiming for boosting its economic growth by 5-6 percent within three years.

Since the summer of 2012, Egypt has been facing its worst energy crisis in years, with power outages on the rise. Power cuts have specifically surged since the start of this summer.

Source: Aswat Masriya