Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Egypt’s electricity sector is facing mounting financial and technical strain after lawmakers revealed that widespread power theft has cost the country an estimated 50 billion Egyptian pounds, highlighting a long-standing challenge in one of the nation’s most vital public services.
The scale of the losses was disclosed by Senator Emad Khalil, a member of Egypt’s Senate, during a plenary session in which he described what he called “shocking” levels of waste in the national power grid. According to Khalil, losses in the electricity sector surged in 2025, with technical and non-technical losses in the national grid estimated at between 25 and 30 percent.
At the center of the problem is the persistent and increasingly sophisticated phenomenon of illegal electricity consumption. Khalil noted that the reality on the ground has revealed a significant expansion in power theft, ranging from illegal connections and meter tampering to disguised commercial use registered as residential consumption. These practices, he warned, have inflicted serious financial damage and undermined the safety and sustainability of electricity networks.
Government figures presented to the Senate underscore the magnitude of the issue. Authorities recorded electricity theft valued at approximately $872 million over a 14-month period ending in September 2025. During the same broader timeframe, the Ministry of Electricity managed to collect around 21.5 billion pounds in fines from violations detected between July 2024 and October 2025.
Enforcement efforts have intensified, with September 2025 alone seeing the issuance of 383,000 violation reports worth an estimated 1.2 billion pounds. The state has also introduced a unified tariff for electricity thieves, calculated at cost price 214.5 piastres per kilowatt-hour, in an attempt to standardize recovery and deter repeat offenses.
Despite these measures, Khalil argued that previous amendments to the Electricity Law failed to achieve sufficient deterrence. He said the data clearly demonstrates that penalties in their existing form were not enough to curb violations, prompting the push for more stringent legal reforms.
In response, the Senate has approved new amendments to the Electricity Law No. 87 of 2015, significantly toughening penalties for power theft. Under the revised provisions, offenders may face prison sentences of no less than one year and fines of up to two million pounds, particularly in cases involving employees who facilitate theft or incidents that result in service disruption. The amendments also target newly emerging forms of manipulation, such as advanced tampering with meters, with penalties calibrated to reflect the severity of the resulting damage.
At the same time, lawmakers introduced a more flexible financial reconciliation system designed to encourage violators to settle their dues. The new framework allows for graduated settlements linked to different stages of legal proceedings, aiming to balance deterrence with the practical need to recover lost revenues and maintain the sustainability of the electricity service.
Egypt has struggled with electricity theft for years, a problem exacerbated by rapid urban expansion, informal construction, and gaps in enforcement. While the government has invested heavily in installing prepaid and smart meters to reduce losses, theft continues to drain public resources and affect service quality.
The new amendments were approved despite reservations from some lawmakers, who argued that harsher penalties alone may be insufficient or unfair without broader structural reforms, including greater private sector involvement and measures to address market concentration. Nevertheless, supporters of the changes see them as a necessary step to protect a critical national utility and stem losses that have reached tens of billions of pounds.
As Egypt seeks to modernize its power sector and ensure reliable service for households and businesses, the battle against electricity theft is emerging as both an economic imperative and a test of regulatory enforcement in the years ahead.
