The Electricity Ministry is studying whether to stretch the timeline for what was to have been a five-year phase-out of power subsidies. The study, which it will conclude next month, was prompted by devaluation and changes to the nation’s fuel mix. Additional costs including petroleum products now accounting for 30% of the nation’s fuel consumption (versus 14% when the plan was developed) and a rise in the price of heavy fuel oil (mazut) have prompted to rethink, Deputy Electricity Minister Sabah Mashaly tells Al Borsa. As we noted back in February, the plan would see power subsidies cut 50% from their 2014 levels by 2020 and fully eliminated by 2025 (although Al Borsa is now reporting that elimination was supposed to take place by 2020).

Meanwhile, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi discussed nuclear energy, the allocation of 1,350 MW of generation capacity to Upper Egypt under the emergency generation plan and maintenance of the national electricity grid in a sit-down with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mohammed Shaker, according to an Ittihadiya statement. Shaker also etched out ongoing efforts to see new and renewable account for 20% of Egypt’s national energy mix by 2022, 30% by 2030, and 55% by 2050.