The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has taken steps to briefly suspend electricity sales to neighbouring nations as part of urgent actions to protect Ghana’s local power supply after a major fire at the Akosombo transmission system.
The move comes after a blaze at a substation in Akosombo in the Eastern Region damaged a transmission setup with a capacity of roughly 720 megawatts.
According to the Ministry, the impacted facility accounts for nearly 70% of the transmission capacity linked to the Akosombo Dam.
Speaking on journalists on Friday, April 24, the Deputy Energy Minister, Richard Gyan-Mensah, said the action was needed to handle the sudden deficit and keep supply stable for domestic users.
“This is an emergency that has actually occasioned it. It is brief; it is not something that is going to last longer. I think they have also heard what has happened to us. In this situation, we need to take some actions and this is one of them,” he said.
He explained that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and GRIDCo are boosting output from available thermal plants to help close the gap caused by the disruption and maintain balance on the national grid.The fire, which broke out on Thursday, April 23, reportedly wrecked vital equipment in the substation, hurting transmission reliability and causing blackouts in several areas of the country.
Technical crews are currently working to bring the system back to full operation and reduce further interruptions to supply. Meanwhile, the Ministry has set up a committee to probe the cause of the blaze and propose steps to prevent a repeat.
