CAIRO, Apr 5 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's president stressed the importance of routine maintenance of power plants to increase productivity, in a meeting with the electricity and petroleum ministers on Sunday.  

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker and Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail discussed rationalising the consumption of energy by reducing waste and relying on energy-saving light bulbs, among other measures, a presidential statement said.

The talks were attended by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb. 

Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years, with power outages surging in the summer. 

Sisi called for implementing energy deals signed during the Egypt Economic Development Conference last month as quickly as possible, whether the deals are on fuel purchase or on building new power plants.  

Egyptian authorities have often owed the power crisis to a larger fuel crisis.

Shaker discussed different sources of energy, including renewable, nuclear and coal. 

Sisi reiterated the importance of diversifying sources of energy, a direction Egypt has been taking in recent months. 

The president said in January that Egypt aims to build solar power plants and wind energy facilities within the next three years, with a total capacity of 4,300 megawatts. 

Egypt signed an agreement with Russia last month, in which Russia will help Egypt build a nuclear power plant in Dabaa, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, allowing Egypt to also generate electricity using nuclear power.