BrazilStrategy& applauds Egypt's campaign to reduce electricity consumption
Fadi Adra, a Partner at consulting firm Strategy&, has made use of the platform afforded to him at the World Government Summit in Dubai to laud the success of Egypt’s nationwide energy conservation campaign. Aimed at reducing the burden on the country’s energy grid, the campaign was launched in 2016 through digital media.
With the advent of rapid economic development, major gaps have been exposed in the energy infrastructure in the MENA region, particularly in developing countries such as Egypt. A growing urban population has increased power consumption significantly, and the supply has failed to increase accordingly.
Over 2013 and 2014, residents of Egypt suffered from power cuts on a daily basis. The demand for electricity in the country far exceeded the available supply, driven primarily by a large share of household electricity consumption, at 42%. Naturally, the priority is to bring supply up to sufficient levels, which the government has been actively engaged in through record-level energy projects that are set to add nearly 5 Gigawatts of electricity in less than two years.
However, another angle that the government simultaneously employed – one that is beneficial in the long-term – is to trim the excesses of household consumption. This has been attempted through the National Initiative for Energy Conservation campaign, which made use of digital outlets to convey key messages of conservation to the public.
One example of campaign efforts is a 90-second advertisement that was commissioned by the Egyptian Electricity Ministry during the peak Ramadan advertisement season of 2016. The commercial, which was hailed for its modernity, detailed how the judicious use of household appliances would reduce the requirements of power cuts.
Such commercials have since become a common feature of the campaign, featuring on TV, radio, social media, and even billboards. This particular advertisement was characterised by the slogan: “You are the solution. Don’t be too lazy to turn off an appliance.” Overall, the campaign is reported to have achieved a reduction of 3.7% in electricity consumption.
Fadi Adra
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Fadi Adra, a Partner at Big Four professional services firm PwC’s consulting subsidiary Strategy& noted the success of the campaign, alongside the Managing Director in the Middle East of global communications giant WPP.
Based in the Beirut outfit of Strategy&, Adra is one of the many Partners at the consulting firm in the Middle East, and is employed in the firm’s Public Sector vertical, with broad experience working with municipalities, social services, and the restructuring of public-sector enterprises. Adra has been at the firm since 2004, and currently operates in the Abu Dhabi and UAE markets.
Having worked extensively with public-sector campaigns, Adra applauded the clarity of the Egypt’s energy conservation campaign, whereby the public was provided information on consumption rates and tips for judicious energy consumption, with the right levels of urgency. The success of the campaign was also noted in Strategy&’s recent call for the nations of the GCC to consider establishing centralised behavioural insight units to aid their various national transformation programmes.
