By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, April 28, GNA – Mr John Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, has provided updates regarding a major power sector disaster caused by a fire incident at the GRIDCo substation at Akosombo.
He said the unexpected and significant incident that happened at Ghana’s biggest generation plant, the Akosombo plant, had greatly and significantly disrupted power evacuation across the country.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series Press at the Presidency in Accra, Mr Jinapor said the incident represents one of the most serious and unprecedented disruptions ever experienced in Ghana’s power sector.
He said Akosombo used to serve as a balance of load, adding that, “all of us even believe that once you lose Akosombo, you lose the entire nation”
“As unfortunate as it is, despite the loss of Akosombo, all the other plants have been running. But it leaves a major deficit”.
He said the fire incident severely damaged the control room responsible for power evacuation.
He explained that when they generate the power from the thermal plant, from the hydro plant, it had to go to the control room first, then the control room takes the power through the switchyard and distributes it.
“So, when you lose the control room, it means that on the spur of the moment, you cannot evacuate any power, thereby, crippling the critical component of the transmission system, leaving over 1,000 megawatts of power stranded at Akosombo,” the Minister said.
He reiterated that with such an unfortunate situation, and inevitably, it resulted in supply disruption across parts of the country.
“As Minister responsible for the Energy sector, my foremost desire and objective is to ensure that every Ghanaian and every part of our country enjoy a stable, reliable, uninterruptible power supply for economic activity and social activity,” Mr Jinapor said.
“This has been the focus of our effort since assuming office, and we have not relented on that effort.”
Mr Jinapor said the unfortunate and unprecedented disaster, which he had never witnessed, had resulted in the temporary attainment of power from their largest generation source, the Akosombo Dam, leading to severe power challenges not witnessed in recent times.
“I wish to assure those affected that I deeply empathise with you, and I share your frustration and discomfort in this trying moment. We never anticipated this,” he said.
“We never saw it coming. We have never witnessed it. It is challenging, but we will rise above this challenge.”
“Our engineers have since remained on site. Some of them have stayed there for three continuous days without leaving the site, working around the clock under very, very extreme, and difficult conditions to restore operations,” he added.
He commended the engineers and technical teams who have remained on site, working tirelessly under extremely difficult conditions to restore the system to full operation.
Mr Jinapor said he had directed the Managing Director for the Electricity Company of Ghana to provide regular and timely updates to the public on areas that would be affected.
He said to get to the root cause of the Akosombo incident, as Minister for the Energy sector, he had constituted a technical team chaired by the venerable Mr Williams Amuna, an Engineer to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the incident.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei