Egypt’s electricity grid has maintained a 300mw capacity surplus for one week due to energy-saving measures adopted by the public, state-owned daily al-Ahram reported on 8 July. However, the balance between the country’s electricity supply capacity and demand is precariously balanced. Not only is Egypt’s electricity demand growing at 6% a year, leading to frequent power blackouts of late, but also the country’s severe gas shortages (see p2) are curbing power plant availability.

Power outages in May led to mounting business losses, traffic jams and daily hardships for Egyptian citizens. (CONTINUED - 273 WORDS)