Tunisia

Tunisia's achievement of 100 percent urban and 88 percent rural electrification is remarkable, all the more so because the country's definition of rural electrification... Show More + is restricted to connections made outside incorporated areas. Compared to rural populations in other developing countries with high rates of electrification, Tunisia's rural population-although only 35 percent of the total population-is highly dispersed and isolated, with long distances between small groups of often scattered houses. This characteristic, combined with the Government's social commitment to connecting all households, has highly influenced program costs and choice of institutional set-up, distribution system, and technology. This paper reports on the major factors contributing to Tunisia's successful rural electrification program, primarily: 1) the national commitment to rural electrification as part of a broader, integrated rural development program emphasizing social equity; 2) an effective institutional structure and coordination of project planning and selection; 3) the utility's sound management and continuing process of technical innovation; 4) the robust financial arrangements; and 5) the complementary strategy of using photovoltaic cells to serve isolated users. Show Less -

This study, which was carried out at the request of the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Utility (STEG) was seen as a challenge from the beginning. STEG has good performance... Show More + compared to that of most utilities in developing countries, with transmission and distribution losses of about 13 to 14% compared to 30 to 40% for many utilities of the same size. The study's principal aim is to analyze: a) STEG's three main technical functions, viz., the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, so as to identify the actions and investments needed to reduce technical losses linked to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity; and b) customer management, in order to reduce non-technical losses. To do so, these tasks were carried out: 1) a technical audit of power generation based on site visits; 2) a technical audit of distribution based on field surveys, discussions with headquarters and regional staff, and computerized simulations of the medium-voltage network; and 3) a review of the procedures used in STEG's customer management cycle, from metering and meter reading to bill collection. Show Less -