The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has called for a comprehensive investigation into the recurring trips on Ghana’s 330kV transmission lines to prevent future nationwide power outages.

According to him, fixing the switchyard at Akosombo may help prevent a total system collapse, but it will not address the underlying causes of the repeated line trips.

Mr Boakye was speaking on Newsfile on JoyNews following a nationwide blackout in parts of Ghana on Thursday.

The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) attributed Thursday’s disruption to a trip in power transmission lines. The incident was the second major system disturbance recorded in August.

Mr Boakye explained that a trip on the 330kV line can trigger a cascade effect, with increased loads transferred to smaller lines and eventually causing a wider collapse of the power system.

“I mean, as far as I understand, what is going on in Akosombo? The total blackout could be fixed if they do the switchyard there, but it wouldn't stop any line from tripping,” he said on Saturday, August 22.

He stressed that investigations must therefore go beyond preventing a complete system collapse and focus on identifying why the high-voltage lines are repeatedly tripping.

“So you really have to also address what is causing the trips on the 330 kV line, because even if you fix a sumo, that prevents a total collapse. But some parts will also collapse if there are consistent trips, so we need to really isolate the issues,” he added.

Mr Boakye said the causes could range from relatively minor technical faults to more serious problems involving grounding and earthing systems.

“There could be some minor ones, some could be major, some could be some ground faults, earthing systems. If they do that audit, they should be able to isolate the causes and be able to address them,” he said.

He further called for targeted investments to ensure that disturbances on the transmission network do not cascade across the entire system.

“Even with a one-size-one line, if the 330 does not trip, you're not going to have the 16-1 also tripping. So we have to go down to the bottom of the issue, address you know what how these trips happen, and perhaps do some investment to be able to isolate some fuel plants immediately. There is those disturbances so that it doesn't cascade to the entire network to cause a nationwide blackout,” he said.

Mr Boakye’s comments come amid renewed concerns over the reliability and resilience of Ghana’s power transmission system following repeated disruptions in August.