The Ministry of Energy has stated that the Akosombo Dam has been totally shut down following a disastrous fire at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) substation in Akosombo, which caused major power disruptions throughout the country.
According to Ministry spokesperson Richmond Rockson, the shutdown was necessary because essential infrastructure was destroyed in the fire.
Speaking on Bryt Adekye Mu Nsem with Kwamina Sam Biney, Mr. Rockson affirmed that engineers are working around the clock to restore power as soon as possible.
“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,”. He said.
The GRIDCo substation, which is essential to the transmission of electricity from the Akosombo Dam to the national grid, was apparently destroyed by fire that started at 2:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 23.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
