John Abdulai Jinapor, the Energy and Green Transition Minister, has announced the full restoration of all power generation units following the Akosombo Substation.
According to Dr Jinapor, the restoration effort was achieved after the emergency response teams worked around the clock in difficult circumstances.
In a Facebook post shared on Friday, May 1, the Minister wrote, “Mission accomplished. All generation units are now back in service.
In the face of a major system disruption, and against all odds, our engineers, technicians, and emergency teams worked around the clock to restore power and stabilise the grid.
Through their tireless work, discipline, and commitment to country, power has been restored and system stability secured.
I extend my sincere appreciation to the leadership and staff of GRIDCo, VRA, ECG, and all supporting agencies whose coordination made this possible.
This moment shows that even under pressure, Ghana can rely on the strength and skill of its people.
May God bless our engineers, our energy sector, and our nation”.
Earlier, Energy Minister John Abdulai Jinapor has announced that the Akosombo, fourth unit, has been successfully brought into operation, which will boost Ghana’s power generation.
According to the Energy Minister, the additional unit at the Akosombo Dam has been successfully restored to boost operation.
In a brief update on Tuesday night, John Abdulai Jinapor disclosed that “at 9:09 pm, the fourth unit at Akosombo Dam was successfully brought into operation,” describing it as “an encouraging step that strengthens power generation.”
Also, the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, 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.”
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has said the recent fire outbreak at the Akosombo Dam enclave provides Ghana with the opportunity to upgrade and modernise power infrastructure.
Speaking on Thursday, April 30, after visiting the Akosombo Dam to assess the impact of the incident, President Mahama stated, “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”.
President Mahama also commended technical teams for restoring operations, citing the progress that has already been made in stabilising power generation.
He added, “You have four of the turbines back on, and he says that you’re working another miracle and that I’ll get good news soon with the remaining two turbines also coming back on”.
“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.
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.
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