Under pressure from the blackouts, Tunisia pushes a World Bank-backed overhaul of its power grid
After weeks of rolling cuts imposed by the utility Steg during a heatwave that pushed temperatures towards 50C, Kapitalis reported on July 30 on the reform package now under way: a 360 MVA transformer commissioned at the Mornaguia substation with a 400 MVA unit to follow, plus an energy-sector regulator, IFRS accounts for Steg, tighter bill collection, an initial 150,000 smart meters and a north-south transmission corridor. The measures are tied to a 384.8-million-euro World Bank loan and a 30-million-dollar Clean Technology Fund credit whose state guarantees parliament approved on July 14. Tunisia imports some 80 percent of the gas it burns and pays about 3 billion dinars a year in electricity subsidies, so the grid is simultaneously a fiscal problem, an energy-security problem and now a political one.