The Volta River Authority has apologised to the public for the blackout that the entire country experienced in the afternoon of Thursday, September 20 and in parts of the country on Friday, September 21. "This unfortunate incident was due to a sudden system disturbance which occurred as a result of the tripping of the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire tie-line," said a statement signed by Ms Abla Fiadjoe, acting Director of Corporate Services. It said the loss of the time-line led to the tripping of a number of transmission lines in the Western corridor of the VRA Power System. To avoid any damage to the generating facilities, the built-in mechanism for protecting such equipment automatically shut down all the units, leading to the blackout at 12.06 pm last Thursday, the statement said. It said the normal restoration process was started and the first generator brought on line at Akosombo twenty-five minutes later at 12.31pm, following which supply was gradually restored to all sub-stations in the country by 5.16pm that day. "However, the line tripped again at 3.34 pm on Friday, leading to curtailment of supply to some parts of the country. The line was restored later at 4.32 pm. "VRA deeply regrets both incidents and trusts that consumers will bear with the Authority as it resolves such problems," the statement said. Source: The Ghanaian Times Source: The Ghanaian Times