Dumsor: Akosombo substation fire incident wiped out 1,000MW, worsened outages – Edem Tamakloe

Presidential Staffer Raymond Edem Tamakloe has disclosed that the recent fire outbreak at a power substation near Akosombo has significantly disrupted electricity supply across the country.

Speaking on JoyNews, he revealed that the incident resulted in the loss of about 1,000 megawatts of power, representing nearly 30 percent of the country’s generation capacity.

“The fire outbreak has wiped out about 1,000 megawatts of generation capacity… about 30 percent,” he stated.

Mr Tamakloe explained that engineers from the Volta River Authority and the Ghana Grid Company are working urgently to restore the lost capacity.

“Engineers… are on the ground trying to… work speedily to restore the capacity,” he said.

He also confirmed that the Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo has been asked to step aside pending investigations into the incident, amid concerns over possible negligence.

“How did this fire outbreak… wipe out 1,000 megawatts?… there is the suspicion of negligence,” he noted.

Despite the disruption, Mr Tamakloe maintained that the situation should not be described as a return to prolonged power outages, commonly referred to as dumsor.

“I am reiterating again that we do not have any dumsor challenges,” he said, adding that government is taking steps to restore stable power supply as quickly as possible.