Due to a shortage of gas to run the nation’s electricity-generating machinery, many parts of Ghana experienced total darkness.
According to power distribution company Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), the Tema power plant, which is close to Accra, has “a supply gap of 550MW at peak time” as a result of the circumstances.
This represents roughly 10% of the nation’s total capacity.
Starting on Thursday evening, there was a massive outage.
While some areas now have power again, Dzifa Bampoh, a GRIDCo spokesperson, informed the BBC that more outages are expected on Friday evening during peak hours.
The worst economic crisis to hit Ghana in a generation is currently being experienced there.
Although power outages occur frequently in Ghana, this one is the worst to hit the country in the past two years.
According to a study published in June, the nation’s energy supply is “critically unhealthy and tottering towards a power crisis”.
According to a study by the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies (CSS), the nation’s financial difficulties have made the power situation worse and could get worse in the upcoming years.
The nation’s independent power producers threatened to cease operations in July due to unpaid debts from the state-owned Electricity Company of Ghana.
The power company, GRIDCo, announced on Thursday that there would be a reduction in the amount of electricity supplied to customers in certain regions of Ghana due to “limited gas supply” to the Tema power plant.
The statement went on, “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
According to a GRIDCo representative, the Takoradi gas plant’s supply issue was the root of the issue.
According to some reports, the problem was unpaid gas suppliers.
The electricity utility company did not specify when regular supplies would return.
Ghana has been suffering from power outages for a number of years; these outages are commonly referred to as “dumsor” in the Akan language, which means “on and off.”
The majority of the electricity in the West African nation comes from thermal and hydropower sources, many of which are not well maintained.
In recent years, the nation has relied largely on gas as a primary energy source for the production of electricity, and any shortage of gas causes power outages.
