The fire that disrupted power supply and exposed vulnerabilities in Ghana’s transmission network was a preventable engineering failure, not sabotage, according to Ing Justice Ohene-Akoto, Executive Director of the Africa Sustainable Energy Centre (ASEC).

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (12 June), Ohene-Akoto said the incident was triggered by insulation failure in a high-voltage cable, a condition he described as a breakdown of the protective material surrounding electrical conductors.

“Insulation is meant to prevent cables from short-circuiting or posing safety risks. When it fails — either due to overheating, aging, or electrical spikes — it can lead to fire,” he explained.

He dismissed speculation of sabotage, stating that the failure was consistent with long-term thermal degradation of infrastructure rather than deliberate interference.

“For me, I wasn’t surprised. This is purely an engineering failure,” he said.

Ohene-Akoto argued that routine maintenance practices — particularly infrared (IR) thermographic scanning — should have identified overheating “hotspots” in the cable before the incident escalated.

“In a proper engineering setting, you scan cables periodically to detect heat buildup. That allows you to isolate and replace faulty sections before failure occurs,” he said.

He described the absence of such preventive action as negligence, stressing that the issue was not due to lack of funding.

“This is not an investment problem. It is a maintenance and engineering discipline problem,” he added.

The ASEC director said the incident escalated because multiple layers of protection failed simultaneously, including:

“Under no circumstance should a fault escalate to this level. Even if one system fails, others should contain it,” he said.

He described the sequence as a “pure engineering blunder” involving both technical and leadership lapses.

Ohene-Akoto warned that similar vulnerabilities may exist across Ghana’s transmission network.

“We should be concerned. If this negligence exists in one substation, it could exist elsewhere,” he said.

He added that Ghana’s grid, while functional, lacks robustness and is susceptible to failures if maintenance standards are not enforced.

The energy expert called for accountability within key institutions, including GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA), urging a review of engineering practices and personnel performance.

“This should never have happened. There are questions engineers must answer,” he said.

He stressed that improving preventive maintenance, protection systems, and operational discipline would significantly reduce the risk of similar incidents.