Editorial: Engineers have managed to restore more than half of lost power!

As at the time of going to press yesterday, news filtering in suggested the country’s main hydropower plant at Akosombo has recovered more than half of the roughly 1,000 MW lost following last week’s control room fire.

Akosombo is now generating at least 550 megawatts (MW) after engineers restored a fourth unit.

This partial recovery is the most significant step yet in stabilising power supply after the April 23 incident forced a shutdown of Ghana’s largest generation source, triggering widespread outages.

GRIDCo’s Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ing. Frank Otchere, in a signed statement said work is ongoing to bring the remaining units and transmission lines back online. Ing Otchere further added that a joint engineering team from the company and Volta River Authority (VRA) had successfully brought four units back into operation as of April 28, steadily lifting available capacity on the national grid.

The CEO said restoration activities are proceeding “smoothly”, with technical teams working around the clock on returning additional units to service.

While management continues to closely monitor the situation, an internal committee has been set up to investigate the fire’s cause and is expected to submit its findings within a week.

Akosombo Dam remains the backbone of the country’s electricity generation mix, supplying a significant portion of national power through its hydroelectric turbines. Any improvement in its operational capacity is therefore seen as critical to stabilising supply and reducing disruptions.

This Paper applauds the dedication and expertise of the engineers and technical team behind the restoration and swift manner in which they have tackled such a monstrous problem – which has the capacity to roll back some of the recent macroeconomic gains chalked up by the current administration.

Addition of the fourth unit is expected to ease pressure on the national grid, particularly as demand continues to climb. Increased consumption and infrastructure constraints, including overloaded transformers, have been identified as key contributors to intermittent outages.

The latest development is likely to offer some relief to households and businesses that have endured erratic power supply in recent days, as government works to shore-up generation and distribution.

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