Egypt's ministry of electricity plans to use the short messages service (SMS) to inform citizens of the timing of power cuts during the summer, reported a local newspaper.

People have to subscribe to this service and register their numbers in order to receive the messages.

The electricity ministry has also agreed with Egypt's national television to broadcast information nationwide displaying on its news ticker the time and the areas where the electricity will be cut off.

The ministry is currently developing a new plan to reduce the loads on electricity for one hour per day in the summer, if necessary, an official told Al-Ahram newspaper.

He added that around 2800 MW would be added by the end of this month to the national electricity company in order to maintain that citizens suffer less blackouts.