Ghana Restores 1,000MW Lost to Fire, Assures Stable Power Supply

By Ikenna Omeje

Ghana’s Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Dr. John Jinapor, has reassured citizens that the country’s electricity supply has stabilised and is now sufficient to meet national demand after recent disruptions.

The development follows the successful restoration of six turbines that were shut down after a fire incident at the Akosombo GRIDCO substation, which temporarily knocked out about 1,000 megawatts from the national grid and worsened ongoing intermittent outages.

Earlier explanations had linked the outages to transformer upgrade works being carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). However, the fire incident significantly compounded the situation.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on May 2, Jinapor said swift action by engineers helped to quickly restore power and stabilise the system.

He explained that although initial projections suggested repairs could take up to six months, engineers developed an alternative solution that drastically shortened the timeline.

According to the minister, the technical team completed the restoration within a week, exceeding expectations and helping to ease pressure on the grid.

Jinapor also revealed that the government is taking steps to prevent future disruptions by planning the construction of a new, state-of-the-art control centre to replace the ageing facility built in 1984.

He noted that the recent fire incident underscored the urgent need to modernise critical infrastructure to improve resilience in the power sector.

The minister added that a proposal will soon be presented to Cabinet to secure funding for the project, as part of broader efforts to ensure long-term stability and reliability of electricity supply in Ghana.