Government has suspended electricity exports following a fire outbreak at a substation linked to the Akosombo Dam, an incident that has knocked nearly 1,000 megawatts off Ghana’s national grid.
The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition says the decision is part of emergency measures to stabilise power supply within the country as engineers work to restore the damaged system.
Speaking on Joy FM on Friday, April 24, Ministry spokesperson Richmond Rockson explained that the immediate focus is to meet domestic electricity needs.
“As we speak, exports have been completely suspended. When you encounter domestic challenges, your first responsibility is to address them locally,” he said.
He added that all available power is now being redirected to serve households and businesses across the country, describing the move as temporary but necessary to maintain stability.
The disruption stems from a fire incident at a key substation connected to the Akosombo Dam, one of Ghana’s most critical sources of electricity generation. The outage has significantly reduced available power, given the dam’s contribution of roughly 1,000 megawatts.
According to Mr Rockson, engineers are working urgently to restore operations, with expectations that the first of the dam’s six generating units could be back online within 24 hours.
“Once the first unit is restored, the same process will be applied to the remaining units,” he noted.
Although earlier estimates suggested full restoration could take up to five days, authorities say efforts are being intensified to shorten the recovery period.
Ghana’s peak electricity demand currently stands at about 4,400 megawatts, making the loss of Akosombo’s output a significant setback. The situation, Mr Rockson admitted, has also highlighted the country’s limited reserve capacity.
“In a well-resilient system, you should have about a 20 percent reserve margin. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough reserves to absorb shocks of this nature,” he said.
Despite the setback, the Ministry insists longer-term plans are underway to strengthen the power sector. These include adding about 1,200 megawatts to the grid, alongside 200 megawatts of solar power supported by battery storage systems. Additional projects aimed at delivering between 200 and 400 megawatts of reserve capacity are also ongoing.
Mr Rockson also clarified that gas supply remains stable and is not a factor in the current disruption.
“Losing close to 1,000 megawatts is a major challenge, but engineers are working around the clock, and we are confident that normal supply will be restored soon,” he assured.
