For people with in-depth knowledge about Ghana’s energy sector’s capacity, at first glance, Ghana should not be experiencing persistent power outages or dumsor, as we call it in the country.
However, what is dreaded by both households and businesses is what is currently happening across the country. The age-old unstable and intermittent power supply, coined locally as dumsor, has resurfaced, threatening business and disrupting the lives and plans of households.
Official data from the Energy Commission shows that the country has installed power capacity of about 5,260 megawatts. This figure is well above the peak demand of roughly 3,900 megawatts.
On paper, this suggests a comfortable surplus. But the reality on the ground tells a very different story. This means that the current crisis is beyond just a burnt substation.
The Question of Excess Capacity
With an installed capacity of about 5260MW and a peak demand below 4000MW, the Akosombo burnt substation should not be able to plunge the country into such a magnitude of darkness.
The substation, according to the authorities, adds about 1000MW to the national grid. This means that even if the 1000MW is taken off the grid, the country should have enough to supply the entire country.
However, in Ghana’s case, a significant portion of the installed capacity depends on some critical factors, which are liquid fuel and gas.
Without gas and liquid, many of these plants are effectively idle, turning what looks like a surplus on paper into a shortfall in practice.
Gas Supply: The Real Pressure Point
At the centre of the current crisis is a disruption in gas supply. The reason why many parts of the country are plunged into darkness despite the excess capacity, The High Street Journal is learning, is due to shortage of gas.
An industry source tells The High Street Journal that the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, a key supplier of fuel to several thermal plants, is undergoing maintenance, reducing the volume of gas available for electricity generation.
This has had a direct and immediate impact. Ghana’s energy mix has, over the years, become heavily reliant on gas-fired plants. So when gas supply tightens, generation capacity drops almost instantly.
In simple terms, the country may have the power plants, but not the gas to run them.
The Complicated Gas Supply Chain
Since the Atuabo Gas Processing is not operating at full capacity, one would expect that the country turns to the West African Gas pipeline for supply to the power plants. However, it is emerging that such a solution is almost impossible under the current arrangement.
The West African Gas Pipeline is only configured to supply gas to the Volta River Authority (VRA) to power their plants. This adds another layer of a challenge to the country’s energy situation.
Moreover, another deeper structural challenge contributing to the current menace is that it is also emerging that a significant number of the independent power plants are not operating at all due to various operational challenges. Aside from the gas supply challenges, some IPPs, sources say, will not even be able to operate if gas were made available today.
This signals that the issue goes beyond the gas unavailability to hit the core efficiency of these thermal plants.
IPPs: Capacity That Isn’t Producing
The hardest hit are the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which account for a large share of Ghana’s installed capacity. Many of these plants depend almost entirely on gas. With supply constrained, several have been forced offline.
The source reveals to The High Street Journal that the Asogli Power Plant is operating only partially, relying on expensive liquid fuel. CENIT Energy is reportedly not in operation and Karpowership is also offline due to a lack of gas
This means a significant portion of Ghana’s supposed “excess capacity” is simply unavailable.
From Surplus to Shortfall
This indicates that long before any technical fault or disruption, the system was already under strain without any buffers.
With multiple gas-dependent plants out of operation, the country was operating on a thin margin. What appeared to be a buffer of over 1,000 megawatts quickly disappeared.
In this context, even a relatively isolated incident, like a substation outage, can tip the system into widespread dumsor.
A Fragile System Exposed
What the current crisis reveals is not just a temporary disruption, but a structural weakness. It shows Ghana’s power system is highly dependent on the availability of gas.
Moreover, it reveals that there are vulnerabilities in the supply chains while the country is also operating with limited real-time backup capacity.
For now, the numbers may suggest stability, but the underlying system is far more fragile. The dumsor now reflects a deeper mismatch between installed capacity and actual availability, driven largely by fuel constraints and over-reliance on gas-dependent generation.
