Parliament urged to summon GRIDCo, Energy Minister over recurring power outages

The Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako-Mensah, has called for Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Energy Minister to appear before Parliament to explain the recurring power outages across the country.

His call follows a widespread blackout on Thursday morning, the second major disruption to the national power system within a month.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, 20 August, Mr Adomako-Mensah said Parliament needed clear answers from the agencies responsible for Ghana’s power transmission system.

“I think we have to call GRIDCo and the Minister to appear before the Energy Committee to give us exactly where the problems are,” he said.

He said the relatively quick restoration of electricity after both incidents did not remove the need to establish what was causing the disruptions.

For the MP, the repeated outages raise questions about the reliability of the national power system and whether measures taken after the earlier incident have been effective.

A key concern, he said, was that the Energy Committee had still not received the full report into the previous power system disruption.

According to Mr Adomako-Mensah, GRIDCo had indicated that the report had been submitted to the Energy Minister.

But members of the committee had only seen references to its findings through social media and news reports, he said, rather than having access to the full document.

The MP said the committee had questioned GRIDCo about the findings when the company appeared before it in connection with an audit report.

GRIDCo reportedly told the committee that the earlier incident was not caused by sabotage and that an investigation report had been submitted to the minister.

Mr Adomako-Mensah said the committee's inability to access the full report made it difficult for Parliament to independently assess the findings or determine whether recommended corrective measures had been

implemented.

The latest blackout has now increased the urgency, he said, particularly because the disruption affected several parts of the country.

Reliable electricity is critical to households, businesses and essential services, making repeated interruptions a wider public concern, the MP argued.

Parliament is expected to reconvene on Monday in what Mr Adomako-Mensah described as an emergency situation.

He said the Energy Committee should use the opportunity to question both GRIDCo and the Energy Minister about the cause of the latest disruption, the findings of the earlier investigation and measures being taken to prevent further incidents.

What remains unclear: The source material does not establish the technical cause of Thursday’s outage, the number of affected customers, the duration of the disruption in different areas, or whether GRIDCo or the Energy Ministry has publicly responded to Mr Adomako-Mensah’s call. Those details should be confirmed before publication if they are to be added.