The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has issued a serious warning regarding the escalating frequency of nationwide power system trips in Ghana, highlighting a critical weakness in the country’s electricity transmission infrastructure. His comments follow a recent, four-day blackout affecting parts of Ghana, prompting a nationwide assessment of the grid’s stability.
Mr. Boakye acknowledged that power system trips are not uncommon, even within established electricity markets where faults can occur and trigger protective systems. However, he emphasized that the escalating frequency of these incidents within Ghana represents a major and growing concern for the nation’s energy security.
‘It’s quite disturbing to have this number of trips occurring so quickly,’ he stated, stressing that the focus isn’t on isolated incidents but the growing number of system disturbances occurring within a relatively short period,’ he explained.
According to Mr. Boakye, Ghana’s power system faces both immediate protection challenges and longer-term infrastructure limitations that require immediate attention to prevent escalating outages that could impact the entire country.
He highlighted that the Akosombo area, a crucial transmission hub, presents a significant problem. The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and other technical teams are actively working to resolve issues at the Akosombo site, but the situation remains critical.
Mr. Boakye suggested that strengthening protection systems around the area would help ensure that a fault affecting a transmission line doesn’t automatically trigger a wider system collapse. He also emphasized that addressing the immediate fault alone would not be sufficient.
‘There are some system problems we need to pay close attention to,’ he said, pointing to the structure of Ghana’s transmission network, which combines 161-kilovolt and 330-kilovolt lines.
The difference in capacity between the two networks, he explained, creates challenges when a major 330kV transmission line is lost and the burden of carrying electricity shifts to the lower-capacity 161kV network.
Mr. Boakye called for immediate measures to limit the impact of failures on major transmission lines. He proposed that Ghana should develop mechanisms to quickly isolate selected generation plants when a 330kV line trips, preventing the remaining transmission infrastructure from becoming overloaded.
‘We need to really find immediate solution for making sure that we can isolate some generation plants quickly when the 330kV line trips,’ he said.
According to him, the 161kV network can struggle to carry the entire electrical load when a major 330kV line goes out of service. Without adequate contingency measures, a fault that begins on one section of the network can therefore spread and result in a much larger outage.
He urged authorities to identify the least-cost measures and appropriate contingency arrangements that could be activated when major transmission lines fail.
The objective, he said, should be to contain the problem and prevent a failure affecting a major transmission corridor from becoming a nationwide blackout.
He suggested that an additional 330kV transmission line from the Akosombo area could have provided another route for evacuating electricity and reduced the pressure created when an existing major line trips.
‘If we had another 330 line perhaps coming from Akosombo, that would have been able to safely evacuate that power that was already on the 330kV line,’ he said.
He stressed that occasional system disturbances are part of operating an electricity network and should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of systemic failure.
The concern, he said, is the frequency and scale of the recent incidents.
For Mr. Boakye, expanding the transmission network and creating additional high-voltage routes should therefore form part of Ghana’s strategy for reducing the risk of nationwide blackouts.
He said immediate interventions should be pursued alongside longer-term investments, rather than waiting for major infrastructure projects before addressing the vulnerabilities exposed by recent outages.
He called for stronger protection around vulnerable sections of the network, faster mechanisms for isolating generation or other components when major transmission lines fail, and continued investment in additional high-voltage transmission routes.
The approach would allow GRIDCo and other system operators to contain faults while maintaining electricity supply to as much of the country as possible.”
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Source: Adom Online
