The majority of Ghana has gone dark due to a lack of gas to power the machinery used to generate electricity in the country.
According to Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), the situation has resulted in “a supply gap of 550MW at peak time” at the Tema power plant, which is located near Accra.
The significant outage began on Thursday evening.
Ghana is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a generation.
There are frequent power cuts in Ghana but this is the worst nationwide outage for two years.
A June study said the country’s current energy provision was “critically unhealthy and tottering towards a power crisis”.
The power situation, which could worsen in the coming years, has been exacerbated by the country’s financial distress, the Centre for Socioeconomic Studies (CSS) study showed.
In July, independent power producers in the country threatened to shut down operations over arrears owed to them by state-run Electricity Company of Ghana.
The power operator, GRIDCo, said in a statement on that electricity supply to consumers in some parts of Ghana would be reduced due to “limited gas supply” to the Tema power plant.
The power utility company did not say what caused the gas supply problem or how long it would take for normal supplies to resume.
For several years, Ghana has experienced power outages known colloquially as “dumsor,” which means “on and off” in the Akan language.
The West African country gets the majority of its electricity from hydro and thermal sources, which are frequently neglected.
