Tunisia suffers nationwide power cut

Tunisia suffered a sudden power cut lasting around three hours across the country on Wednesday due to a technical problem, the state-owned monopoly electricity and gas company Steg announced.

The power cut occurred at around 01:00 local time (00:00 GMT) "due to a sudden breakdown" at the Radès power station in the southern suburbs of Tunis, Steg said in a statement, without giving any details.

Electricity began to be restored at 4.00 am in several districts of Tunis.

According to reports on social networks, the power cut lasted more than four hours in some areas.

This type of nationwide power cut is rare in Tunisia.

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