By Daniel Donkor
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has begun a detailed incident monitoring exercise at the Sunyani operational areas of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), following a major power outage that plunged the Sunyani Municipality and surrounding communities into darkness.
The blackout occurred on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, after a technical fault developed on one of GRIDCo’s largest transformers at the Sunyani switchyard. The fault, which affected Transformer Two (T2), a 33 megavolt-ampere (MVA) unit, significantly disrupted electricity supply across parts of the municipality.
The outage brought business activities to a near standstill, particularly for enterprises that rely heavily on electricity for production and service delivery. Many operators reported losses as commercial activities were halted for several hours.
In response, a joint PURC team from Accra and the Bono Regional Office paid a working visit to Sunyani, holding separate engagements with officials of NEDCo and GRIDCo to establish the cause of the outage and assess the response measures taken.
Briefing the PURC team, the Sunyani Area Manager of NEDCo, Ing Eugene Odoi Addo, said the incident occurred around 4:00pm when operators detected unusual sounds from the switchyard, accompanied by smoke and oil spillage around one of the transformers.
“The fault was traced to Transformer Two (T2), which is the larger of the two transformers at the substation and a critical component of power distribution in Sunyani,” Ing Odoi Addo said. “For safety reasons, power supply was immediately switched off to protect lives and property.”
Despite the severity of the fault, he said engineers were able to partially restore about 42% of the 11kV load to selected areas, particularly critical installations, to ensure essential services continued while repair works progressed.
The incident compelled NEDCo to introduce a temporary eight-hour power management schedule, leaving many shop owners and small-scale operators counting their losses.
Ing Odoi Addo further recommended the installation of a higher-capacity transformer to support Sunyani’s growing population and rising electricity demand, noting that such an upgrade would improve system resilience and reduce future disruptions.
Speaking after the engagements, Ing Enyonam Kumi of the Energy Service and Performance Monitoring Directorate at PURC Headquarters said the Commission would thoroughly review the technical and operational data submitted by both utilities.
“The PURC will assess the response actions taken during the outage, as well as the quality of power supply after restoration,” she said. “We take power reliability very seriously and will follow up to ensure that the necessary corrective and preventive measures are fully implemented.”
Ing Kumi commended NEDCo and GRIDCo for their swift coordination in restoring power to affected areas and assured residents of continuous monitoring to improve electricity supply reliability in the municipality.
As part of the visit, the PURC team also interacted with affected customers in Sunyani to gather first-hand accounts of the impact of the outage.
The monitoring team was led by the Bono Regional Manager of PURC, Patrick Antwi, and Senior Complaints Officer Isaac Osei Agyeman. Other members included Ing Enyonam Kumi and Cecil Oduro-Nyarko from the Energy Service and Performance Monitoring Directorate at PURC Headquarters.
