Africa Centre for Energy Policy has warned that Ghana’s power situation is deteriorating rapidly, urging urgent structural reforms and greater transparency, including the publication of a clear load shedding timetable.
In a statement issued in Accra on April 27, the policy group said households, businesses and public institutions have endured more than a month of worsening power outages, raising concerns about economic stability and public confidence in the energy sector.
According to ACEP, the situation has been significantly worsened by a recent incident at the Ghana Grid Company Akosombo substation, where a fire knocked out about 960 megawatts of relatively affordable and reliable power generation capacity. This loss has triggered widespread disruptions across the national grid.
The think tank criticised the quality of communication from system operators, describing updates on outages as inconsistent and unreliable. It noted that many communities have experienced power cuts beyond announced schedules, while others not listed in official updates have also been affected, deepening frustration among consumers.
“Communication has been irregular, inconsistent, and unreliable, with outages frequently extending beyond announced areas,” ACEP stated, highlighting what it sees as a major gap in crisis management.
Beyond immediate disruptions, the organisation argued that the scale and duration of the outages point to deeper structural problems within the energy sector. While authorities have partly attributed the situation to transformer upgrades and maintenance works, ACEP said such explanations are not fully convincing, citing past instances where similar claims were later challenged by independent reviews.
Instead, the group pointed to long standing systemic issues, including constraints in gas supply and processing, maintenance backlogs, and broader planning inefficiencies. These factors, it said, suggest that the current crisis cannot be explained by routine technical challenges alone.
ACEP also cautioned against the use of short term emergency measures to address the situation, warning that reactive decisions taken under pressure have historically resulted in costly consequences for the state and consumers. It urged policymakers to adopt a more strategic and transparent approach to reforming the sector.
Central to its recommendations is the call for a clear and reliable load shedding timetable. The group believes that providing predictable schedules would allow households and businesses to plan better, even if supply constraints persist in the short term.
However, this position contrasts with the government’s current stance. John Abdulai Jinapor has indicated that issuing a fixed timetable may not be feasible due to the fluid nature of the situation, with generation capacity changing frequently as engineers work to restore power plants.
The divergence highlights a broader tension between transparency and operational uncertainty. While policymakers argue that the situation is too dynamic for fixed schedules, analysts say the absence of predictable information is contributing to public anxiety and economic disruption.
The crisis is already having visible effects. Businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, are facing rising operational costs due to reliance on alternative power sources. For many households, prolonged outages are affecting daily life and productivity.
The warning from ACEP adds to growing concerns that Ghana may be sliding back into a period of unstable electricity supply, often referred to locally as “dumsor.” While authorities maintain that the situation is being managed, the persistence of outages suggests deeper vulnerabilities in the system.
As pressure mounts, attention is now shifting to how quickly and effectively the government can respond. Beyond restoring lost capacity, the challenge will be addressing the underlying structural issues that continue to undermine the reliability of Ghana’s power sector.