President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed rationalising energy and reducing waste during a meeting with the electricity and petroleum ministers on Wednesday.

Sisi, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker and Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail, reiterated the importance of maximising the use of available resources by carrying out routine maintenance of power plants to increase productivity, a statement from the presidency said.

This is the second meeting to feature the president and the two ministers this month and it comes ahead of the summer, when power outages surge.

Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years.

Shaker said that there are two dimensions to the plan to meet demands for electricity. On the short term, the plan targets providing 3,600 megawatts of electricity within 2015. While on the long term, the plan is to build more power plants within the next two years.

Shaker also discussed different sources of energy, including renewable, nuclear and coal. Egyptian authorities have often owed the power crisis to a larger fuel crisis.

Source: Aswat Masriya