Power blackout: IES demands release of July 29 outage report

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has called on Ghana's government and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to release the findings of a technical investigation into the nationwide power outage of July 29.

The call comes after another nationwide outage on Thursday, August 20, raising fresh questions about the resilience of Ghana's power transmission system.

IES Senior Research and Policy Analyst Derrick Xatse said the July 29 investigation should provide the public with a clear explanation of what caused the disruption and what is being done to prevent a recurrence.

Speaking on JoyNews' The Pulse on Thursday, Mr Xatse said GRIDCo had announced plans to investigate the earlier incident, but that he had not seen the findings nearly three weeks later.

“We have not sighted any report of that, so I’m not sure the media has also sighted any report of that,” he said.

Fresh blackout raises questions

The July 29 outage followed the reported tripping of several generating plants, causing disturbances across the national power system and resulting in a nationwide blackout.

GRIDCo subsequently said it would conduct a technical investigation to identify the cause and inform corrective measures.

But before those findings had been made public, another nationwide outage occurred on Thursday.

GRIDCo attributed the latest disruption to a major fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission line.

The two incidents are separate developments, and the source material does not establish that the latest fault was connected to the July 29 blackout.

Mr Xatse nevertheless said the recurrence of a nationwide outage before the earlier investigation had been published raised concerns about the resilience of the national grid.

He is urging the government to release the July 29 report if it is ready and provide information on the specific measures being implemented to address vulnerabilities identified by the investigation.

Calls for greater transparency

The IES also wants the Energy Ministry and GRIDCo to explain what additional safeguards are being introduced while temporary arrangements are being used to maintain power supply.

Mr Xatse argued that greater transparency was needed because households and businesses rely on predictable electricity to plan their daily activities.

Repeated nationwide outages can disrupt businesses, public services and household routines, although the source material does not provide an estimate of the economic cost of either outage.

The immediate question for GRIDCo and the Energy Ministry is therefore whether the July 29 investigation has been completed and, if so, what it found and what corrective measures have followed.

The IES says publishing those findings would help Ghanaians understand the vulnerabilities in the power system and assess whether steps are being taken to prevent further nationwide disruptions.