Tunisia: AfDB Loan to Rehabilitate Tunisia?s Electricity Network

2 September 2009
African Development Bank (Abidjan)
press release

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 in Tunis approved a loan of  42,34 million Units of Account (UA), equivalent to 87.83 million Tunisian dinars (TND) (US$ 66.306 million), to finance the rehabilitation and restructuring of the electricity network in the country.

The Electricity Distribution Network Rehabilitation and Restructuring Project is an investment project dealing with the construction and rehabilitation of power lines and stations with a view to upgrading medium tension and low tension networks to meet Tunisia’s economic exigencies and satisfy the Electricity and Gas company (STEG’s) customers.

The total project cost is estimated at TND 111.66 million, equivalent to UA 52.42 million (US$ 66.306 million).

The main beneficiaries are the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG), which will have a more reliable and safer electricity distribution network, increase the quantity of energy sold and its turnover, and improve the safety of workers and third parties; and small and medium-scale industries as well as the tourism sector and resident subscribers who will benefit from better quality service.

Tunisia’s economic development and improvement of the people’s standard of living have led to a significant growth of electric power consumption (5% per annum) and the saturation of the distribution network. Furthermore, certain plants and installations are under-size and no longer appropriate to carry the current network load. This concerns particularly low voltage underground and overhead lines and the electrical equipment of medium voltage and low voltage distribution stations. These installations are the cause of electrical overload, technical losses and high voltage drops, sometimes higher than 20%, which is clearly above the accepted levels stipulated in STEG’s contract specifications (7% for the medium voltage network and 10% for low voltage).

The project concerns all regions of the country. The relevant installations are located in all the country’s governorates distributed in STEG’s 7 Regions and 38 Districts.

The Bank is one of Tunisia’s key energy sector partners. Since its first operation in 1975, it has financed seven projects.  The AfDB’s net commitment in the sector is estimated at UA 211 million, equivalent to 437.74 million TDN (US$ 330.43 million)

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