Akosombo Dam shut down completely after fire guts critical control room, nationwide blackouts hit as engineers declare key infrastructure beyond salvage
The Ministry of Energy has said that the Akosombo Dam will be completely shut down because a terrible fire destroyed important infrastructure at the Ghana Grid Company substation in Akosombo, which caused power outages across the country. Richmond Rockson, a spokesperson for the ministry, said that the switch yard and its main control room were completely destroyed by fire and could not be repaired. This made it unsafe to continue operations, so engineers had to stop working because of how bad the damage was. The fire that started around 2:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, made it very hard for the dam to send electricity to the national grid. As a safety measure, the dam had to be shut down. Officials say that investigations into the cause are still going on and that restoration work will start once technical evaluations are finished.
