The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has linked Thursday morning’s nationwide blackout to a major fault on the Akosombo–Volta transmission line. The incident triggered the automatic shutdown of the Akosombo generating units and several thermal plants, in line with protection mechanisms designed to safeguard the stability of the National Interconnected Transmission System.
In a statement, GRIDCo explained: “Immediately following the incident, our engineers, working closely with other power sector agencies, isolated the affected transmission line and initiated the safe, systematic restoration of the power system.”
The outage, which began around 4:30 a.m. on August 20, 2026, left households, businesses, and essential services across Ghana in darkness, disrupting daily activities nationwide. In Accra, affected communities included Adabraka, Weija, Tesano, Achimota, Dzorwulu, Legon, Madina, Adenta and Oyarifa, with residents reporting outages from the early hours of the morning.
The disruption also affected parts of the Eastern, Northern, Central and Ashanti regions, including Aburi and Tamale. But GRIDCo says electricity has already been restored to some affected areas, with restoration efforts continuing for remaining customers. GRIDCo has mobilised its technical teams to complete the restoration as quickly and safely as possible, while assuring the public that further updates will be provided.
Thursday’s incident is the second major disruption to Ghana’s national power system in less than a month. On July 29, 2026, several parts of the country, including communities in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and parts of the Ashanti and Eastern regions, also experienced a widespread power outage.
The recurrence is likely to heighten concerns about the reliability and resilience of Ghana’s transmission network, particularly as disruptions affect households, businesses and critical services
Source: Nii Larte Lartey
