The floating power plant operated by Karpower Ghana maintained uninterrupted output of 450 megawatts throughout the electricity supply crisis triggered by the April 23, 2026 fire at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) substation at Akosombo, the company’s Managing Director has confirmed.
Oscar Kojo Amonoo-Neizer made the disclosure during a tour of Karpower’s facility at the Sekondi Naval Base by the Sekondi Traditional Council, describing the plant’s performance during the period as a demonstration of the value of dependable thermal capacity in the national energy mix.
“During the period of the outage at Akosombo, we have been available 100 percent throughout. The output has been based on the contractual agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which is 450 megawatts contribution to the grid. We have been stable, reliable and dependable during this crisis period,” he said.
The fire on April 23, 2026 damaged the control room at the Akosombo plant and reduced output by more than 1,000 megawatts, triggering structured load-shedding across Greater Accra, Volta, Ashanti and the Tema enclave. Electricity exports to Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin were suspended from April 25 to conserve power for domestic use. As of April 27, two generating units at Akosombo had been restored to the national grid, with restoration of the remaining four units expected to follow within the week.
Amonoo-Neizer said the crisis underscored the strategic importance of independent power producers (IPPs) operating under long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Karpower is currently in negotiations with ECG over a renewal of its PPA, and Amonoo-Neizer said the plant’s crisis-period performance strengthens the case for an extension.
“The extension is also justifiable because we are efficient in our operations. Our availability has been one of the best, and we have been there at all times when there is the need for energy,” he said.
Energy analysts have noted that the Akosombo incident exposed the systemic risk of over-reliance on a single large-scale hydro source. The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) called for a thorough and independent investigation into the fire, arguing that an incident of such scale raises serious questions about operational safeguards and system oversight, and urged the government to commit to full public disclosure of the findings.
