The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) are assuring residents of Obuasi and New Edubiase of efforts to restore power supply following a fire incident at the Obuasi Substation.

The fire, which occurred late Wednesday, May 21, disrupted the electricity supply to the two districts, leaving parts of the Ashanti Region in darkness.

In a statement, GRIDCo indicated that engineers are currently conducting technical assessments to verify the integrity of equipment at the affected substation before reconnecting customers to the national grid.

The Public Relations Officer for ECG in the Ashanti West Unit, Benjamin Owusu Antwi, explained the importance of the damaged facility.

“The incident occurred last night at about 9.12pm at the GRIDCo bulk supply point. And the bulk supply point is very significant in our operations because that is where ECG normally meets GRIDCo to take power supply from and then distribute to our customers via our feeders, our distribution lines, and then sometimes the sub-transmission lines as well,” he said.

According to him, once the bulk supply point is compromised, ECG cannot distribute electricity to its customers.

“So what we know now is that the fire supply gathered some equipment at the GRIDCo end of the BSP. And once the GRIDCo end is shut down, there is no way power can flow through the ECG and for onward distribution.”

He added that technical teams from both ECG and GRIDCo are currently on-site to determine the extent of the damage and begin restoration efforts.

“As we speak, the GRIDCo engineers are on site assessing the extent of damage before they see what they can salvage to restore power supply to enable ECG to also distribute power. Our sub-transmission team is also on site together with the Asante South maintenance team as well.”

Mr Owusu Antwi offered an apology to residents and businesses affected by the outage.

“We would want to apologise to our cherished customers that it's as a result of this fire, not a deliberate action. Engineers are working assiduously to ensure power supply is restored.”