The Volta River Authority (VRA) was established on April 26, 1961 under the Volta River Development Act, Act 46 of the Republic of Ghana, as a body corporate with the mandate to operate mainly as a power generation, transmission and distribution utility. In 2005, following the promulgation of a major amendment to the VRA Act in the context of the Ghana Government Power Sector Reforms, the VRA's mandate has now been largely restricted to generation of electricity. The transmission function has been separated into an entity, designated Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo). The VRA will continue to operate its distribution agency, the Northern Electricity Department (NED) as a subsidiary company and NED eventually merge with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) into a single distribution utility after the transition period. The amendment has a key function of creating the requisite environment to attract independent power producers (IPPs) onto the Ghana energy market.

VRA has other responsibilities in furtherance of its corporate mandate. These include Lake Transportation, Tourism, Maritime administration of the Volta Lake, Lakeside Health and Management of the Akosombo Township.