A major fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission line knocked out power across parts of Ghana before dawn on Thursday, the country’s second nationwide outage in less than a month.
The recurrence is likely to sharpen scrutiny of the reliability of Ghana’s transmission network. The last comparable disruption came on July 29, when a widespread outage hit Accra, Tema, Kasoa and parts of the Ashanti and Eastern regions, less than a month before Thursday’s fault.
The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) said the latest fault struck at about 4:30 a.m., triggering the automatic shutdown of the Akosombo generating units and several thermal power plants. The utility described the shutdown as a built-in protection response designed to safeguard the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS), rather than a failure of the response itself. The disturbance cut power to parts of the country, including communities in Accra.
GRIDCo said its engineers, working with other power sector agencies, moved quickly to isolate the affected line and began restoration. The company confirmed power had already been restored to some affected areas by the time of its statement, with technical teams continuing to reconnect remaining customers. GRIDCo apologised for the inconvenience and said it would continue issuing updates as restoration progresses. The utility has not yet stated what caused the fault on the line itself.
Thursday’s incident also follows a separate, planned disruption earlier this month. On August 16, GRIDCo cut power to parts of Greater Accra for emergency repairs after a fuel tanker explosion damaged a transmission tower during welding work on the Tema-Achimota line. That repair was completed in an initial phase the same day, with a second phase scheduled for August 23. That outage was unrelated to Thursday’s Akosombo-Volta fault, but it adds to a run of network strain Ghana’s grid has faced in August alone.
Restoration from Thursday’s fault remains ongoing, with GRIDCo and other power sector agencies working to stabilise the system and reconnect the areas still without supply.
