Ghana’s Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has given individuals and businesses operating within Ghana Grid Company Limited’s (GRIDCo) transmission rights-of-way one month to voluntarily evacuate or face forced removal.
Jinapor said the directive was necessary to protect critical energy infrastructure and prevent activities within transmission corridors from endangering lives, property and Ghana’s power supply.
He issued the directive on Thursday during a visit to Ashaiman Middle East to inspect the assembly of a replacement transmission tower after a tanker explosion damaged an existing tower on July 10.
The tanker exploded while undergoing welding work beneath a transmission line, sending part of the vehicle more than 300 metres into one of the towers and compromising its structural integrity.
Under L.I. 542, as amended by L.I. 1737, activities are prohibited within protected corridors extending 15 metres on either side of 161-kilovolt transmission lines and 20 metres on either side of 330-kilovolt lines.
Jinapor said the government would use legal measures to remove people who failed to comply with the deadline, including confiscating and auctioning items left behind.
“We are giving all those operating under these pylons one month to evacuate on their own,” he said.
He said the government would work with the police, military, national security, local assemblies and other stakeholders to enforce the directive, adding that repeated appeals to encroachers had failed to resolve the problem.
“Where persuasion fails, force must be applied legally,” Jinapor said.
The chief executive of GRIDCo, Frank Asirifi Otchere, said the July 10 incident had compromised the structural integrity of the tower, which carries two critical transmission lines from the Volta Substation in Tema to the Achimota Substation.
“The power on it feeds most of Accra,” he said.
Otchere said the impact occurred after part of the tanker travelled more than 300 metres before hitting the tower, creating a risk that the structure could collapse and affect other towers along the transmission line.
GRIDCo has retrieved an identical spare tower from its stores and is assembling it to replace the damaged structure.
Otchere said the replacement work was scheduled for the weekend and had been compressed from the usual two days to about 12 hours to minimise disruption.
“Our men have done the programme and crashed it so that we’ll try to contain it within a day, within 12 hours,” he said.
He warned that the work could require a temporary reduction in electricity load in Accra to prevent adjacent transmission lines from becoming overloaded and tripping.
He appealed to the public to stay away from transmission rights-of-way, saying the restrictions were intended to protect lives and prevent damage to critical infrastructure.
“When GRIDCo comes around, and we say move away from our right of way, we are thinking of your good,” he said.
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