Considered its worst in decades , Egypt 's energy crisis that helped inflame the protests against former president Mohamed Morsi continued to grow in Sisi 's first months in office , challenging the new government . Due to shortage in energy production , growing consumption , terrorist attacks on Egypt 's energy infrastructure , debts to foreign oil companies and the absence of the needed periodic maintenance of the power plants , the energy blackout rates in Egypt rose to unprecedented levels , with some parts of the country facing around six power cuts a day for up to two hours each . In August 2014 , daily electricity consumption hit a record high of 27.7 gigawatts , 20 % more power than stations could provide . The next month Egypt suffered a massive power outage that halted parts of the Cairo Metro , took television stations off the air , and ground much of the country to a halt for several hours because of the sudden loss of 50 percent of the country 's power generation . Sisi , on his part , said that the idler would be held accountable and promised to partially solve the economic crisis by August 2015 , and that , beginning with December that year , the crisis will be dealt with entirely . Both long-term and short-term plans were introduced . In the short-term , Egypt signed a contract with General Electric ( GE ) to provide the country with 2.6 gigawatts by the summer of 2015 . The first phase entered service in June and the final phase was expected to be completed by the end of August , making it one of the fastest energy transferring operations in the world according to GE . In June , Sisi 's administration stated that for the first time in years , Egypt achieved a surplus in power generating capacity estimated at 2.9 gigawatts . In the long-term , Egypt paid more than $ 6 billion it owed to foreign oil companies between January and March . Energy contracts were placed as a top priority in the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015 , resulting in a $ 9 billion contract with Siemens to supply gas and wind power plants to boost the country 's electricity generation by 50 percent , in addition to an energy deal worth $ 12 billion ( LE91 .5 billion ) with BP to provide the country with an extra quarter of local energy production . Sisi also stated that Egypt is not just solving its energy crisis , but rather seeking to become a " global hub for energy trading . " In Nicosia on 21 November 2017 he met President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras . They encouraged and welcomed private sector initiatives of energy infrastructure projects , important for energy security of all three countries such as the EuroAfrica Interconnector , interconnector between Greek , Cypriot , and Egypt power grids via submarine power cable of length around
Egypt Economic Development Conference
Egypt Economic Development Conference
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi