Five voices explain Tunisia's power cuts, and only one blames an enemy he will not name
Rotating power cuts began in Greater Tunis on 12 July, and STEG made them official four days later. They were still going on 26 August, when the president called in the heads of the power and water utilities, and water had failed in several regions too.
Where they agree
None of the five describes a fix already under way. The observatory, the engineer and the union arrive at the same place from different directions: capacity that was never built, and a ministry that neither clears new projects nor tells the truth about the state of supply.
Where they split
They name four causes, not one. The president names people, without saying who. STEG names the clock and the load, demand crossing its capacity between 1pm and 5pm. The observatory names a decade in which investment in generating plant fell 87 percent, a finding the engineer reaches independently from a different direction: a production system that now runs the whole summer with no technical safety margin. The union names a ministry that refuses to tell citizens the truth about the state of supply.
On 26 August Saied called the prime minister, the energy and water ministers and the heads of STEG and SONEDE to Carthage Palace. He said investigations had established that cuts recorded in several regions were not ordinary breakdowns but premeditated acts. He accused their presumed authors of seeking to inflame tensions and to disturb citizens.
Ennaifer says summer demand now passes the roughly 5,000 megawatts the company can supply, peaking between 1pm and 5pm as air conditioners run, which leaves two moves: rotate the cuts or import from Libya and Algeria. She says a rotating cut lasts 30 minutes to an hour, so by her account anything longer is a network fault rather than a planned cut.
Against STEG's own account of a summer demand spike, the observatory says the heat is not the real explanation. Its report puts STEG's investment in generating plant at 1.947 billion dinars over 2016-2020 and 248 million over 2021-2025, a fall of 87 percent, while consumption grew an average 3.8 percent a year between 2021 and 2025. Several generation projects are waiting for a green light from the industry, mines and energy ministry, which has the last word on them.
Foued Ali told Jawhara FM on 20 August that he agrees with the observatory: the repeated cuts are not mainly about the heat waves. STEG's generating system now runs right through the summer with no technical safety margin, he says, which leaves the country permanently dependent on imported electricity and gas. He wants the stalled generating concessions settled and money put into large conventional plants.
Elias Ben Ammar says it is the industry, mines and energy ministry, not STEG, that refuses to tell citizens the real state of supply and stops the company warning them before a cut. Two fixes reported as done are not, he says: the new motor at the Mornaguia station only repaired a broken transformer there and added no new capacity, and the power ship presented as secured was never formally engaged. STEG has asked suppliers what renting a mobile plant and buying gas turbines would cost, found the prices high and signed nothing.