Egypt switched to summer time today, after a law was passed last year to resume this practice, BTA reported.
Shifting was introduced in the North African country for the first time in 1988. It was canceled after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 on the grounds that it did not achieve the goal of saving electricity. It was reintroduced in 2014 and repealed again in 2016.
In 2023, the government adopted a package of measures to reduce electricity consumption. Along with the return to daylight savings time, these include a partial shutdown of lighting on the facades of government buildings and on the streets.
And in Egypt, moving the arrows has both supporters and opponents. According to figures from the Ministry of Electricity, presented by MP Al Syed Shams Eddin, this saves $25 million a year. However, Hani al-Nokrashi, who is a member of President Abdel Fattah Sisi’s scientific council, believes that the time change is leading to longer use of air conditioners for cooling.
Despite the announced measures, in July 2023 the authorities introduced a schedule of planned blackouts due to prolonged heat that overloaded the power system and a decline in local gas production.
