The Ministry of Energy has revealed that the Akosombo Dam was completely shut down following a major fire outbreak at the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) substation at Akosombo, an incident that has disrupted power supply across the country.
According to the Ministry, the fire caused severe damage to critical infrastructure at the substation, forcing authorities to take the difficult decision to halt operations at the dam.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, the Ministry’s spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, described the extent of the destruction and its impact on Ghana’s power system.
He explained that the fire destroyed the switch system at the facility, making it impossible to continue operations.
“The switch yard, which is at the Akosombo Substation, is completely burnt down and it is not salvageable. The primary control room for the switch yard is completely gone. It was even difficult for us to walk there when we got there to assess the situation,” he said.
He added that the scale of the damage left authorities with no option but to shut down the dam.
“And when that happened, we had to shut the Akosombo Dam completely, and so that is what caused the outages in many parts of the country as we are seeing. Because Akosombo is a major component when it comes to our power generation,” he stated.
The fire reportedly broke out around 2:01 pm on Thursday, April 23, engulfing the substation, which is a key part of Ghana’s electricity transmission network.
