Ghana: Akosombo Switchyard Fire An Opportunity To Rebuild Better Power Systems — Mahama

Ghana’s President, John Dramani Mahama, says the recent fire that gutted the switchyard of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) Limited substation at Akosombo in the Eastern Region presents an opportunity for the country to upgrade critical infrastructure.

The fire incident, which occurred on Thursday, April 23, cut about 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the Akosombo generation plant from the national grid, disrupting electricity supply across the country and triggering complaints from Ghanaians on social media.

President Mahama on Thursday, April 30, visited the Akosombo Dam to assess the impact of the incident and told engineers and officials that the setback presents a chance to rebuild with improved systems.

 “This presents an opportunity because now that this adversity has happened, it gives us an opportunity to replace it with a more modern control room that will serve this Akosombo plant and let it work for more generations yet to come,” he said.

He commended technical teams for their swift response in restoring operations, noting progress already made in stabilising power generation.

“You have four of the turbines back on, and I’m told you’re working another miracle, and that I’ll get good news soon, with the remaining two turbines also coming back on,” he added.

The President reaffirmed the government’s commitment to supporting key state energy institutions, describing both GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA) as critical to Ghana’s power sector.

“VRA will continue to be one of the foremost state-owned enterprises, and every support the government can give you, we will continue to give you,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Energy, John Jinapor, confirmed that five power generation units of the dam have been successfully restored, with the remaining unit expected to return to operation in the next few days.