Recurring Blackouts: Parliament To Summon GRIDCo, Energy Minister

The Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako-Mensah, is pushing for the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Minister for Energy, John Jinapor to appear before Parliament to account for the recurring disruptions to Ghana’s power supply. His call follows Thursday morning’s widespread blackout, which marked the second major disturbance to the national power system in less than a month and has renewed concerns about the reliability and resilience of the country’s electricity infrastructure.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 20, Mr Adomako-Mensah said Parliament must demand a detailed explanation from the institutions responsible for the transmission and management of the national power system. “I’m just hoping that as Parliament reconvenes on an emergency situation for Monday, I just spoke to my chairman. I think we have to call GRIDCo and the Minister to appear before the Energy Committee to give us exactly where the problems are.”

According to him, while power was restored relatively quickly after the recent incidents, the recurrence of major system disruptions should not be treated as routine. He said the Energy Committee needed to establish precisely what was causing the outages, whether the underlying problems had been addressed and what measures were being implemented to prevent similar incidents. Mr Adomako-Mensah further disclosed that the committee was yet to receive the full report into the earlier power system incident, despite indications from GRIDCo that the document had been submitted to the Energy Minister.

He said members of the committee had instead encountered information about the report through social media and media reports, leaving Parliament without direct access to the document needed to properly scrutinize the findings. The legislator said the matter came up when GRIDCo appeared before the Energy Committee in connection with an audit report, during which members questioned the company about the circumstances surrounding the earlier system disturbance.

GRIDCo, he said, indicated that the investigation report had been submitted to the Energy Minister and that sabotage had been ruled out as a possible cause of the incident. However, Mr Adomako-Mensah argued that without access to the complete report, the committee could not independently verify the findings or determine whether the corrective measures arising from the investigation had been fully implemented. The latest blackout, he said, makes the need for that information more pressing and strengthens the case for Parliament to engage directly with GRIDCo and the Energy Minister. He stressed that recurring disruptions to the national power system have implications beyond inconvenience, affecting businesses, households and essential services that depend on a stable electricity supply.

With Parliament expected to reconvene on Monday August 24, under the emergency arrangements cited by the legislator, Mr Adomako-Mensah wants the Energy Committee to use the opportunity to demand answers on the causes of the repeated system disturbances and the steps being taken to safeguard the stability of the national grid. The proposed parliamentary engagement could also provide an opportunity for GRIDCo and the Energy Ministry to clarify the findings of the earlier investigation and explain whether measures recommended after that incident have been implemented.

By: Joyce Owusu