The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, is calling for an aggressive technical audit into the recurring trips along Ghana’s 330kV transmission network.
This demand follows a severe nationwide power outage on Thursday, which marked the second major grid collapse this August alone.
Speaking Saturday morning on Newsfile, Boakye argued that fixing isolated infrastructure will not solve the underlying crisis.
While repairing the switchyard at Akosombo might stave off a total system failure, it completely ignores why the high voltage lines keep failing in the first place.
According to the state power transmitter, the Ghana Grid Company LTD, Thursday’s darkness stemmed directly from a tripped transmission line. Boakye broke down the dangerous domino effect that follows such an incident.
When a massive 330kV line suddenly trips, all that electrical load violently shifts to smaller capacity cables. That sudden surge overloads the smaller network, eventually plunging the entire system into darkness.
Treating the Root Cause
Boakye made it clear that patching up Akosombo is just a temporary bandage for a much deeper technical wound.
“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 explained.
He stressed that engineers need to hunt down the precise technical reasons behind these high voltage failures rather than just managing the fallout.
"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." - Benjamin Boakye
The ACEP boss suggested launching a comprehensive technical audit immediately. He pointed out that the culprits could range from relatively minor equipment glitches to massive ground faults and compromised earthing systems. Diagnosing the exact problem is the only way to deploy a permanent fix and restore confidence in the sector.
Securing the National Grid
The current vulnerability of the grid is a massive economic risk, Boakye noted, pushing for targeted financial investments to shield generating plants from these cascading shocks.
“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.” Benjamin Boakye
His blunt warnings arrive right in the middle of mounting public frustration over the highly fragile state of the national grid.
With businesses taking a massive hit and homes grappling with unpredictable disruptions, securing the transmission infrastructure has never been more urgent.
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