On Wednesday, Tunisia had an abrupt nationwide power outage for around three hours owing to a technical issue, according to the state-owned monopoly electricity and gas company Steg.
Without providing any information, Steg stated in a statement that the power outage happened at the Radès power facility in the southern suburbs of Tunis “due to an unexpected malfunction” at approximately 01:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
By 4:00 am, various Tunisian neighbourhoods saw the start of the restoration of electricity.
In other regions, the power outage reportedly lasted longer than four hours, according to accounts on social media.
In Tunisia, power outages of this magnitude are unusual.
This summer, due to a heat wave that exceeded 45 degrees Celsius, the authorities had to carry out scheduled load shedding, targeting a different region each time.
According to data from June 2023, the state-owned company Steg supplies 99% of Tunisia’s electricity, produced mainly from natural gas, with renewable energies (mainly photovoltaic) accounting for just 2.5% of the total.
As the country has few hydrocarbons, most of its natural gas comes from Algeria, thanks to preferential tariffs on the gas pipeline linking that country to Italy.
Tunisia also imports natural gas from neighbouring Algeria and neighbouring Libya.Several regions of Tunisia have also experienced cuts in drinking water supplies in recent months, due to the drought that is threatening water reserves.
Dams are currently only 27% full, and the government has introduced rationing until the end of September
