The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, has revealed that the Akosombo Dam has been completely shut down.
According to Richmond Rockson, the development follows the fire outbreak at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) substation at Akosombo.
John Abdulai Jinapor highlighted that the fire caused massive damage to critical infrastructure at the substation, explaining that the mage disrupted operations and forced authorities to temporarily shut down the Akosombo Dam.
Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, April 27, the Energy Ministry spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, explained, “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.
“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 further disclosed that it will take several months to fully rebuild the damaged Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) Akosombo Substation.
On Thursday, April 23, the fire incident reportedly occurred at 2:01 p.m. when the substation, a vital installation within Ghana’s electricity transmission network, was suddenly engulfed by flames.
Meanwhile, John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, has ordered the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Ing. Mark Awuah Baah, to step aside.
Ing. Mark Awuah Baah has been ordered to step aside pending investigations into a fire outbreak at the Akosombo Power Control Centre.
In an announcement made by Minister of State in Charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, on X on Sunday, April 26, 2026, read, “Minister for Energy and Green Transition has asked the CEO of GRIDCo to step aside pending investigations into fire incident at Akosombo power control centre”.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu further disclosed that there has also been a major shake-up in the leadership of the ECG in the Ashanti Region.
His post added, “Also, there has been a major shake-up in the leadership of the ECG in the Ashanti Region”.
He further disclosed that, “ At 2 pm tomorrow, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Hon John Jinapor, will hold a major briefing on recent developments in electricity distribution”.
In the meantime, a spokesperson for the Energy Ministry, Richmond Rockson, has announced that Ghana has lost 1,000MW of power generation due to a fire outage at the Akosombo Dam.
In a post he wrote, “We have lost over 1,000MW of power generation due to a fire outage, which has led to the shutdown of the Akosombo Dam. Engineers are actively working to restore the power supply as quickly as possible.
Please bear with us as we work through this situation. We appreciate your patience and understanding”.