Engineers at the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam are working to restore at least one generating unit within the next 24 hours after a fire swept through the facility’s substation switchyard, disrupting power transmission and dealing a major blow to the national grid.

Spokesperson for the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Richmond Rockson, disclosed this to Joy News on Top Story.

According to him, the fire damaged a transmission system with a capacity of about 720 megawatts, representing nearly 70 per cent of the power transmission capacity linked to the Akosombo Dam.

“The engineers are working to restore 1,000 megawatts, which is very significant in the scheme of things,” Rockson said.

He added that the blaze narrowly missed the main switchboard area, a development engineers say could significantly speed up restoration works.

The incident occurred at about 2:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, according to the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), which confirmed that emergency response teams were immediately dispatched to contain the fire and assess the damage.

GRIDCo said the fire affected operations at the facility and disrupted electricity transmission within the national grid.

Rockson explained that once the first of Akosombo’s six generating units is brought back online, engineers would use the same recovery process to restore the remaining units one after another.

Although he did not give a specific timeline for full restoration, he said the process would begin immediately after the first unit is successfully restarted.

As a precautionary measure, all operational units at the dam were shut down on Thursday evening to protect equipment and personnel.