Tunisia experienced a sudden power cut on Wednesday that lasted about three hours, affecting the entire country. The state-owned electricity and gas company, Steg, reported that the outage was caused by a technical problem at the Radès power station in the southern suburbs of Tunis, although they did not provide specific details.

The power cut began around 1:00 AM local time and was mostly restored by 4:00 AM in several districts of Tunis. However, some areas reported outages lasting over four hours, according to social media reports. Nationwide power cuts of this nature are uncommon in Tunisia.

Earlier this summer, the country faced scheduled power outages due to a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius. During that period, authorities implemented load shedding to manage electricity supply.

Steg supplies 99% of Tunisia’s electricity, primarily generated from natural gas, while renewable energy sources contribute only about 2.5%. Most of Tunisia’s natural gas is imported from Algeria, which benefits from preferential tariffs on a pipeline that connects to Italy. Additionally, the country imports gas from Libya.

In recent months, several regions have also faced drinking water shortages due to drought conditions affecting water reserves. Current data indicates that dams are only 27% full, prompting the government to introduce water rationing measures that are set to continue until the end of September.