IES urges urgent GRIDCo assessment after third nationwide blackout

Story by: Isabella Kabukuor Atrikpe

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has called on the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to undertake an immediate technical assessment of the national power system following Ghana’s third nationwide blackout in less than a month.

The latest outage occurred at about 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 20, 2026, following a major fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission lines, according to the IES.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Institute described the recurrence of nationwide power outages as “a cause for worry” and urged GRIDCo to publicly disclose the findings of its assessment.

The IES recalled that Ghana experienced another nationwide blackout on July 29 after several generating plants tripped across the national power system.

Following that incident, GRIDCo indicated that it would conduct a technical investigation to determine the cause of the disturbance and identify appropriate corrective measures.

However, the IES said nearly three weeks after the July 29 incident, no report on the investigation had been made public.

“Three weeks on, no such report has been made public,” the Institute stated.

According to the IES, the latest blackout has heightened concerns about the reliability and stability of Ghana’s national electricity grid, particularly at a time when electricity demand continues to increase.

The Institute urged GRIDCo to expedite efforts to restore power fully and conduct a comprehensive technical assessment of the latest incident. It also called on the company to provide full and transparent information on the challenges confronting the national power system to enable Ghanaians to understand the causes of the recurring outages.

“GRIDCo must also undertake full and transparent disclosure to the public regarding the challenges confronting the national power system, so that Ghanaians are kept properly informed,” the statement said.

The IES further called for immediate short-term measures to safeguard the stability of the national grid while encouraging sustained investment to strengthen the long-term resilience of the power system.

It said the repeated nationwide blackouts should serve as a wake-up call for urgent action to identify and address vulnerabilities within the transmission and generation systems.

As of the time of the IES statement, GRIDCo had not publicly disclosed the cause of the latest outage or provided a timeline for full restoration.

The latest blackout has meanwhile renewed public concern over the reliability of electricity supply, with some Ghanaians expressing frustration over the recurrence of nationwide power interruptions.

The IES maintained that transparent investigations and timely disclosure of their findings would be critical to restoring public confidence and preventing similar incidents in the future.