Ghana's Energy Minister John Abdulai Jinapor says the government chose to accept occasional power cuts rather than shut down the Akosombo Power Plant for six months following a fire at its control infrastructure.

Dr Jinapor said the decision was taken after the April 23, 2026 fire at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) switchyard at Akosombo, which left engineers with two options: shut the plant down while a permanent control system was rebuilt, or develop a temporary arrangement to keep electricity flowing.

He said he opted for the temporary solution because keeping Akosombo operational was considered less disruptive to the country's electricity supply.

“I had a decision to make, and I decided that we should go by the temporary measure whilst we put in place a permanent solution,” he said.

The decision has come under renewed scrutiny after parts of Accra and other parts of Ghana experienced a power outage lasting about one to one-and-a-half hours on Thursday.

The outage was the second major disruption in about three weeks, following a similar incident on July 29.

The trade-off

According to Dr Jinapor, the temporary arrangement has largely worked since it was introduced, allowing the Akosombo plant to continue supplying electricity while engineers work on a permanent system.

But the arrangement has a weakness.

The minister said the system is designed to disconnect customers when it detects a frequency disturbance in the electricity network.

“When there is some frequency disturbance, it takes off a customer immediately to protect the system,” he said.

That means consumers can experience sudden interruptions when the system responds to a disturbance, even though the mechanism is intended to prevent a more serious failure of the wider power system.

Dr Jinapor acknowledged the impact of the outages on households and businesses.

He said he understood the frustration caused by even a relatively short interruption, particularly for businesses whose operations depend on a reliable electricity supply.

But he argued that the alternative could have been far more disruptive.

“It’s true, today we had about one hour outage to about one and a half hour outage for some parts of Accra and some parts of the country, but I can’t compare that to having six months of Akosombo perpetually down,” he said.

Permanent solution expected in September

The government says the temporary arrangement is not intended to become a permanent feature of Ghana's electricity system.

Construction of a permanent control room is under way and is expected to be completed in September, according to the minister.

“This phase is just a temporary phase. I am sure that by next month we will switch back to the original plan and we’ll have a much more resilient power supply situation,” Dr Jinapor said.

The permanent system is expected to address the weaknesses associated with the temporary arrangement and provide a more resilient way of managing electricity supply from the Akosombo facility.

Why the decision matters

The latest explanation puts the recent outages in the context of a difficult choice facing Ghana's power authorities.

Keeping Akosombo running has allowed electricity generation to continue while engineers work on restoring its permanent control infrastructure.

But the temporary arrangement carries a risk of short interruptions when the system detects disturbances.

For electricity consumers, the key question now is whether the permanent control room will be completed as scheduled and whether it will reduce the risk of similar outages.

Dr Jinapor appealed to Ghanaians to bear with the situation until the permanent solution is completed.

“Please bear with us. Please bear with me,” he said.

The minister was speaking on Thursday at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).

If the permanent control room is completed in September as expected, the government says the temporary arrangement will be replaced with a more resilient system

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