Accra, Sept. 22, GNA- The Volta River Authority (VRA) apologised to all electricity consumers and the general public for the blackout that affected the entire country in the afternoon of Thursday, September 20 and Friday September 21.

A press release signed by Ms. Abla Fiadjoe, Acting Director Corporate Services of VRA, on Saturday, said, "this unfortunate incident was due to a sudden system disturbance which occurred as a result of the tripping of the Ghana-Cote d`Ivoire tie-line." It explained that the loss of the tie-line led to the tripping of a number of transmission lines in the Western corridor of the VRA power system.

The release indicated that "to avoid any damage to the generating facilities, the built-in mechanism for protecting such equipment automatically shut down all the units, leading to the blackout at 12:06pm last Thursday."

It said normal restoration process was started and the first generator was brought on line at Akosombo 25 minutes later at 12:31pm, following which supply was gradually restored to all sub-stations in the country by 5:16pm that day.

The release said "the line tripped again at 3:34pm on Friday, leading to curtailment of supply to some parts of the country but the line was restored later at 4:32pm."

The release said VRA`s technical team was working with their Ivorian counterparts to resolve the problem. It said VRA deeply regretted both incidents and trusted that consumers would bear with the Authority as it solved such problems.