Parts of Sunyani and surrounding communities have been plunged into power outages following a fault on one of the largest transformers at the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) switchyard in the Bono Regional capital.

According to GRIDCo, the fault occurred on Transformer Two (T2), the larger of the two transformers at the Sunyani switchyard, with a capacity of 33 megavolt amperes (MVA). The incident happened on Tuesday evening, disrupting power supply to large sections of the municipality.

The outage has brought several businesses to a halt, particularly those that depend heavily on electricity for production, resulting in significant disruptions to commercial activities and financial losses for operators.

Addressing the media at a press conference in Sunyani on Wednesday, the Sunyani Area Manager of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Mr Odoi Addo, said the extent of the damage was still being assessed and, for now, the company was unable to provide a timeline for restoring full power supply.

He explained that a series of technical tests had to be conducted to determine the severity of the fault, stressing that until those assessments were completed, it would be difficult to indicate when the transformer would be repaired.

When the Daily Graphic visited the switchyard, engineers from GRIDCo were on site working to fix the damaged transformer.

In the meantime, GRIDCo, in collaboration with NEDCo, has begun redirecting loads to the only remaining 20 MVA transformer serving the Sunyani township. As a result, residents in Sunyani and its environs are expected to endure intermittent power supply and load-shedding for some time, as the two companies work to produce a load-shedding timetable.

Mr Addo said residents would have electricity for only about eight hours each day, explaining that load management was necessary to ensure some level of supply across the affected areas. He said this would allow customers to enjoy “a bit and pieces of the power”.

He, however, assured that critical institutions, including the Sunyani Teaching Hospital and the Third Infantry Battalion at Liberation Barracks, have been placed on constant power supply since the incident.

Mr Addo noted that the faulty transformer supplied the bulk of electricity to Sunyani, adding that, “So as we speak, we only supply about 42 per cent capacity in Sunyani township”.

He advised consumers to use electricity prudently and to switch off appliances when not in use. “We should manage the little power that we have. So that if we see any reserve capacity, we can hook on other people who are off,” he said.

Recounting the incident, Mr Addo said it occurred at about 4:00 p.m., when operators detected an unusual sound at the switchyard, accompanied by smoke and oil spillage around one of the transformers. He said the operators immediately shut down the power supply to protect lives and property.

According to him, a more detailed technical assessment later confirmed that one of the power transformers at the yard had developed a fault, rendering it unable to supply electricity to parts of Sunyani and neighbouring communities.

On his part, the acting Area Manager of GRIDCo for Sunyani and Techiman, Mr Etse Mawuli, said assessments began immediately after the incident and continued throughout the night. He said the company planned to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the damage and effect repairs within the shortest possible time.

Mr Mawuli assured residents that engineers would continue to work around the clock to restore the transformer and stabilise power supply to the affected areas.