On Tuesday, June 25, Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly held a press conference to address the ongoing power outages in Egypt. He announced that the crisis is expected to persist until the third week of July, with the government extending the load reduction schedule to up to three hours daily. Furthermore, the government plans to allocate $180 billion to mitigate this crisis.
Following the Prime Minister's press conference, Al Youm Al Sabea (Youm 7) published an article asserting that Egypt's current power crisis is part of a global phenomenon impacting major countries like Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. The article attributed the outages in these countries to an intense heatwave sweeping across the globe, which has also contributed to a decline in global oil production.
However, Misbar investigated the allegations made by local Egyptian newspapers regarding the power outage crisis in Egypt and found them to be misleading. The cited countries do not experience daily or frequent power outages, and there have been no significant reports of such a crisis in local or international media. Furthermore, the newspaper failed to provide accurate reasons for power outages in various parts of the world, leading readers to mistakenly believe that the causes are interconnected when they are not.
Temporary Heating Crisis in Russia Due To Sporadic Power Outages
On June 27, the Egyptian newspaper Youm 7 published another article stating that "around 2,500 power outages were recorded in Russia last year. This led the Russian government to allocate approximately $10 billion to upgrade the power grid over the next five years, focusing on the most outage-prone areas. Additionally, over 500 emergency teams have been formed nationwide to promptly address outages and repair damages."
Misbar's investigation into the numbers and data presented by Youm 7 could not verify the reported 2,500 power outages in Russia in 2023. The newspaper did not cite its sources for these claims.
An investigation by Misbar's team revealed that over two million people in Russia and parts of Ukraine experienced power outages following a snowstorm triggered by a volcanic eruption on December 11 of the previous year. The storm resulted in over 18 deaths nationwide. The Russian Ministry of Energy reported that around 1.9 million people were without power due to the storm. Additionally, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that all necessary emergency measures would be taken to aid those affected. This contradicts Youm 7’s claims that the power outages in Russia were due to extreme heat.
In another incident on January 4 of this year, local Russian newspapers reported a fire at an ammunition factory near Moscow. The reports indicated that many multi-story buildings experienced severe drops in temperature due to power outages, leaving residents without heating as temperatures fell to around -27 degrees Celsius. On January 16, it was reported that over 20,000 people in a single city were affected by power outages due to similar incidents in various municipalities across Russia, attributed to the deteriorating infrastructure of Russian cities.
On January 9, Bloomberg reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the nationalization of a U.S. ammunition manufacturing company. The company was accused of triggering a crisis in the heating systems of thousands of homes across ten different areas of St. Petersburg due to a boiler room malfunction during a cold snap that hit the country at the time.
No Reports of Daily Power Outages in Russia
On the other hand, Misbar found no evidence of daily power outages in Russia due to a global electricity crisis or extreme heatwaves affecting several countries worldwide. In fact, the Russian news agency reported on November 27 of the previous year that electricity generation in Russia increased by 1.1% compared to November 2022, reaching a production of 105 kilowatts per hour, according to the official Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Russia is the world's second-largest producer of natural gas after the United States and the largest exporter of natural gas globally. In 2021, Russia produced approximately 762 billion cubic meters of natural gas and exported about 210 billion cubic meters through pipelines, based on IEA data.
Ukraine Suffers Power Outages Following Russian Attacks on Infrastructure
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has focused on targeting energy facilities in Ukraine. On December 27, 2022, Kharkiv experienced a power outage after Russia targeted its power plants, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without heating amid extremely low temperatures. Earlier, on December 15 of the same year, Kherson also suffered a power outage due to Russian strikes on the city's infrastructure. The regional governor of Kherson stated that 'intense shelling of vital infrastructure in the port area left the entire city without power.'
On February 4 of the previous year, a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Odessa resulted in a power outage.
"This year, Russia bombed seven thermal power plants in Ukraine in March, through intensive rocket attacks that inflicted extensive damage on Ukraine's power generation sector."
On June 5 of this year, the British newspaper Financial Times reported that Ukraine has lost half of its electricity production capacity, which was one of the largest in Europe, since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine.
All of these indicators contradict what was published by Youm 7, which claimed that the reason for power outages in Ukraine was extreme heat.
U.S.A. Allocates $10 Billion To Avert Infrastructure Issues in the Energy Sector
The Egyptian newspaper Youm 7 claimed in its article on the electricity crisis in Egypt that the crisis is global and has affected the United States. The article stated, "According to statistics, the United States recorded about 4,500 major power outages in 2023, an increase of 15% from the previous year. Outages in major cities lasted around 4 hours each time, while some rural areas experienced outages exceeding 10 hours, affecting 60 million people."
However, according to a report by the German statistics website Statista, the average number of power outages in the United States from 2000 to 2023 was 1,759 incidents over 23 years, affecting more than 50,000 people each time. This contradicts the figures mentioned by the Egyptian newspaper.
On another note, Youm 7 reported that the U.S. federal government had allocated $100 billion to upgrade the power grids over the next five years. However, Misbar found this information to be misleading. The U.S. Department of Energy announced on November 14 of the previous year an allocation of $3.9 billion for grid modernization as part of a five-year program, with a total budget of $10.5 billion aimed at securing the country's energy infrastructure, according to the official website of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Reasons for Egypt’s Power and Energy Crisis
At the outset of its article on the power crisis in Egypt, Youm 7 newspaper claimed that climate change, extreme heat, and global population growth are among the reasons behind the power outages in Egypt, linking it to a global power outage crisis. However, the newspaper failed to mention that Egypt's power outage crisis did not begin solely this summer. The country has been experiencing power outages across most parts since July 2023 due to high temperatures, fuel shortages, and heightened electricity demand for cooling homes, putting significant pressure on Egypt's power generation networks.
After a brief pause in the power outage crisis in August of last year, the Egyptian government announced a new schedule for load shedding in October. The crisis resurfaced when Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced last Tuesday that Egypt is facing electricity supply challenges. He stated that power outages would extend to three hours daily nationwide, and shops would close at 10 p.m. to conserve electricity as part of the load reduction plan. The Prime Minister attributed the crisis to "fuel procurement issues, dollar reserves, increased consumption due to development efforts, population growth, and a sudden rise in temperatures.
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