Tipper Truck incident causes major power outage in parts of Ghana

A widespread power outage that affected large parts of Ghana on Thursday, May 1, 2025, has been traced to an incident involving a tipper truck near a key transmission line, the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have confirmed in a joint statement.

According to the release, the disruption occurred at exactly 1:42pm when a tipper truck, discharging stones at a private construction site near the Nkawkaw–Konongo Transmission Line, inadvertently lifted its bucket into a line conductor. The impact damaged the high-voltage infrastructure and triggered a system-wide disturbance.

“This incident caused all power plants at Aboadze and Anwomaso to trip, taking off supply to the Western, Central and Northern parts of the country, as well as some customers in Accra,” the power companies stated in the release signed by Dzifa Bampoh, GRIDCo’s Manager of Corporate Communications, and William Boateng, ECG’s Director of Communications​.

Following the outage, engineers were quickly dispatched to the scene to begin repair works, with both agencies assuring the public that every effort was being made to restore full supply as soon as possible.

“Our engineers have mobilised to the location to repair the damaged transmission line and work is on-going to restore all affected areas by 6pm today,” the statement read.

GRIDCo and ECG have apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused and urged the public to remain patient as teams continue to stabilise the national grid.

The outage, which affected both residential and industrial users, sparked widespread complaints and further highlighted concerns about the vulnerability of critical power infrastructure across the country.