The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Hon John Abdulai Jinapor, has announced the successful restoration of two generation units at the Akosombo power facility following the recent fire outbreak at GRIDCo’s substation.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, April 27, the Minister disclosed that swift emergency interventions by engineers have begun to stabilise the country’s power supply after days of disruption.
According to him, the incident, which he described as “unfortunate and unprecedented,” temporarily reduced output from one of Ghana’s largest power generation sources, leading to widespread electricity challenges.
“My foremost desire and objective is to ensure that every Ghanaian enjoys a stable, reliable and uninterrupted power supply,” he stated, stressing that this has remained the government’s priority since taking office.
Hon Jinapor expressed empathy to citizens affected by the outages, acknowledging the discomfort caused. “I deeply empathise with you, and I share your frustration. We never anticipated this, we never saw it coming,” he said.
He praised the commitment of engineers who have been working tirelessly under difficult conditions to restore operations. “Some of them have stayed there for three continuous days without leaving the site, working around the clock,” he revealed.
Providing an update on progress, the Minister confirmed that the first unit was restored a day earlier, while the second unit came back online shortly before his address.
“I’m pleased to inform you that through emergency technical interventions and sheer determination, the first-generation unit was successfully restored,” he said. “This afternoon, I received confirmation that the second unit has also been brought on and is generating power.”
Work is currently underway on a third unit, which is expected to be operational soon. Mr Jinapor added that the restoration process is also testing new and innovative technologies introduced in response to the incident.
“When we bring on the third unit, it paves the way for the new technology, which has proven to be successful. Then they will bring on the remaining three units,” he explained.
The Minister assured the public that the government and relevant agencies remain fully engaged in resolving the situation and restoring full power generation capacity in the shortest possible time.
