The Ghana Grid Company Ltd. (GRIDCo) has announced plans to temporarily reduce power supply to parts of Accra over the weekend as it replaces a damaged transmission tower at Ashaiman Middle East, near Tema.
The development was disclosed by Ing. Frank Asirifi Otchere, Chief Executive of GRIDCo, during a visit to the affected area by the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Dr. John Abdulai Jinapor, on Thursday.
Ing. Otchere explained that the tower was damaged on July 10 when a fuel tanker exploded while some welders were working underneath the Tema-Achimota 161 kV double-circuit transmission lines.
According to him, part of the tanker was propelled more than 300 metres by the explosion and struck a nearby transmission tower, compromising its structural integrity.
He said GRIDCo would take down the damaged structure and install a replacement over the weekend.
“We are planning that over the weekend we take the whole tower down and replace it with a new one,” he said.
Ing. Otchere noted that the affected transmission line is critical to electricity supply in Accra. He explained that power supply would have to be reduced during the replacement exercise to prevent the neighbouring transmission lines from becoming overloaded.
However, GRIDCo did not provide details on the specific parts of Accra expected to experience outages.
The GRIDCo Chief Executive also appealed to artisans, welders, mechanics and shop owners who have illegally occupied the company’s right of way beneath transmission lines to vacate the areas.
He warned that such activities expose the occupants and the wider public to significant safety risks.
Dr. Jinapor confirmed that the replacement exercise would lead to temporary power outages in some parts of Accra.
The minister commended GRIDCo’s engineers for their efforts and appealed to residents in affected communities to cooperate with the company and the Ministry during the exercise.