GRIDCO fire an opportunity to modernise power infrastructure – President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has described the recent fire outbreak at the Akosombo Sub-station as an opportunity to upgrade critical infrastructure.

During a visit to the dam on Thursday, April 30, 2026, the President met engineers and officials working to restore power after the fire damaged major equipment at a substation operated by the Ghana Grid Company.

The incident led to a significant loss of power over 1,000 megawatt-hours, triggering intermittent outages across parts of the country and disrupting daily life for many households and businesses.

President Mahama acknowledged the scale of the challenge but encouraged the staff on the ground to look beyond the damage and remain optimistic.

“This presents an opportunity because now that this adversity has happened, it gives us an opportunity to replace it with a more modern control room that will serve this Akosombo Plant and let it work for more generations yet to come,” he said.

The President praised engineers for their quick response, noting that several turbines have already been brought back online, a development that is gradually restoring power to the national grid.

“You have four of the turbines back on, and he says that you’re working another miracle and that I’ll get good news soon with the remaining two turbines also coming back on,” he added.

He also used the visit to reaffirm the government’s support for key institutions such as GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA), describing them as essential to keeping the country’s power generation seamless.

“VRA will continue to be one of the foremost state-owned enterprises, and every support the government can give you, we will continue to give you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister John Jinapor confirmed that four of the generation units are now operational, with engineers working around the clock to bring the remaining units back online within the week.

NA/VPO