The Ministry of Energy has confirmed the complete shutdown of the Akosombo Dam following a fire outbreak at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) substation in Akosombo.
According to citinewsroom.com, the incident on Monday, April 27, 2026, caused significant damage to key infrastructure at the substation, leading to widespread power supply disruptions across the country.
The Ministry indicated that the extent of the damage affected operations at the facility, prompting authorities to temporarily halt activities at the Akosombo Dam as a precautionary safety measure.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, April 27, the Ministry’s spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, explained that the fire badly damaged the dam’s switch system, leaving it out of operation.
He further indicated that the severity of the damage has disrupted Ghana’s power generation and distribution network, making urgent intervention necessary.
“The switchyard at the Akosombo substation is completely burnt and beyond salvage. The primary control room has been totally destroyed—it was even difficult to access the area during our assessment. As a result, we had to shut down the Akosombo Dam entirely, which has led to outages in many parts of the country. Akosombo remains a key component of our power generation,” he explained.
The fire reportedly broke out around 2:01 pm on Thursday, April 23, quickly engulfing the substation.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has directed the CEO of GRIDCo, Mark Awuah Baah, to step aside pending investigations into the incident at the Akosombo power control centre.
The announcement was made by the Minister of State for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, in a post on X on Sunday, April 26, 2026.
He revealed that the Minister for Energy and Green Transition has directed the CEO of GRIDCo to step aside pending investigations into the fire outbreak at the Akosombo power control centre.
Kwakye Ofosu also disclosed that a major reshuffle has been carried out within the leadership of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti Region, following recent intermittent power outages in the area.
