Accra, Oct. 9 GNA - The Volta River Authority (VRA) on Sunday apologised to the public for the power outage that affected the country at 17.15 hours on Saturday.

A statement signed by Ms Harriet Wilson, Director of Public Affairs, VRA, said the problem was caused by a breakdown on the transmission line linking Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, which in turn led to the overloading of the Aboadze Thermal plant and thus putting more strain on the Akosombo and Akuse Hydro Plants.

It said as a result, the national power system shut down automatically as a safety measure to protect the generating plants and equipment.

The statement said VRA's Engineers had to make up for the shortfall by increasing power supply from the hydro plants, and was able to restore power to the entire country by 2100 hours that same evening. It said the VRA regrets the inconvenience caused by the power outage and gave that assurance it was determined to maintain the supply of adequate and reliable electrical power to the country.