Governorates in Upper Egypt experienced a wave a blackouts Wednesday evening, leading shops to close.

An Electricity Ministry source said the governorates of Qena, Red Sea, Assiut, Sohag, Minya Luxor, Aswan and New Valley had experienced power outages lasting between several minutes to more than half an hour.

A power station in central Egypt had malfunctioned, influencing the Nagaa Hammadi station, which controls electricity around the country, the source explained, saying the ministry is investigating the cause and that the outages led to severe confusion among ministry officials.

The degree of emergency was raised in the power stations of Qena, Hamra Dome, Qus and Farshout, in case of any new cuts.

Gamal Adam, secretary general of Assiut Governorate, said the malfunction in the unified network had been repaired and that the power would gradually return.

But a source at a northern Upper Egypt electricity company said the failure’s cause had not been identified.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm