Power is gradually being restored across Northland after 2+ hour outage.
The mass outage that crippled Northland by cutting power to more than 90,000 businesses and homes is over, with electricity fully restored across the region.
There has yet to be an explanation for the power cut, with Transpower saying it occurred during a time when maintenance was being done on the North's backup circuit.
Power has restored to Whangārei by noon and was quickly rolled out across the region.
A Northpower spokesman said the immediate focus was getting Whangarei Hospital, police and emergency services connected, then the central city.
Joey Johnson at Churchills butchery in Kerikeri where the power cut has staff preparing for a rush on anything that can be barbecued. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The power cut affected 60,000 properties in Northpower's area, and a further 32,000 Top Energy customers in the Far North.
Northpower asked customers who haven't had their power restored yet, to call 0800 10 40 40 or 0800 THE GRID for Transpower.
A simple but effective message for motorists in Paihia this morning. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The impact of the cut was instantly felt across the North with some businesses forced to close and residents warned to conserve water, avoid flushing the toilet and to turn off electrical devices.
Northpower says the outage, which is believed to affect all of Northland, was caused by a fault on Transpower's national grid.
The affected areas include Dargaville, Maungatapere, Poroti, all of Whangārei and also all areas North.
The area covered by the outage.
The Marsden Point Refinery is being shut down as part of its safety procedures, which can take several hours.
A large flare can be seen coming out of one of the chimneys as heat and pressure is being released from the plant.
A spokesperson said the flaring was a normal safety mechanism which allows the refinery team to vent gases as they depressurise processing units.
He said no one had been injured or evacuated.
Information on the Northpower website says the estimation restore time is currently "unknown''.
The fault occurred on the Whenuapai-Marsden high voltage line about 9.35am.
The cause of the fault is not yet known.
Barry Wienand from Paper Plus, in Whangarei's Cameron Street Mall, chats with a customer during the power cut. Photo / John Stone
A Top Energy spokeswoman said power had been lost across the Far North. The Top Energy faults app is also down due to high demand with people trying to check the extent of the power cut.
Northpower was initially experiencing problems with its phone lines, frustrating the ability of customers to receive updates.
While the outage has brought traffic chaos to Whangarei, the effects are less drastic in the Far North, which has only one set of traffic lights, on Paihia's Marsden Rd.
A Whangārei Hospital spokesperson said that they had backup generators to ensure operations run as usual.
The power cut caused concern for Jeni de Jong, who had real concern for her health when the power went out.
She has a machine in her body designed to transmit emergency messages to Whangarei hospital if her heart begins to fail.
When Northpower posted an update about power returning to its Facebook, she replied saying: "My heart machine needed loading... hope it's back on asap".
Jeni de Jong, who has heart disease, was concerned over the loss of electricity to life-critical medical equipment. Photo / Supplied
De Jong, who has a genetic condition resulting in heart disease, told the Advocate the power cut sparked concern over the critical life-maintaining link to medical care.
The machine in her body acts as a monitor and defibrillator. If it picks up abnormal function, it is able to deliver a shock to the heart and send results to a monitor in her home. The results guide the machine to offer advice on whether to call an ambulance, doctor or go to the hospital.
Her call-out on social media to Northpower led to a response she said was stunning and appreciated.
The electricity company promptly messaged her privately, giving her specific timings on power being restored and urging her to go to the hospital if necessary.
"I was blown away. That was really nice of them - it was a beautiful message."
The outage has disrupted businesses in tourist centres such as Paihia, but there are no cruise ships visiting the Bay of Islands today. At least one cafe is setting up a generator to ensure coffee keeps flowing.
Westpac Bank in Kerikeri is closed. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Cafes in Kerikeri are still open but have switched to plunger coffee while their espresso machines are out of action.
Petrol stations have also closed.
A fault on the electricity lines to Northland coincided with scheduled maintenance work on the electricity grid's safety net, leading to the region-wide outage.
A Transpower spokesman said a fault occurred this morning while crews were working on one of the two supply circuits to the North.
Woah. Looks like power out for the entire Far North? The text I just got says "transpower caused". pic.twitter.com/MHKz9TGYW1
It was unknown what caused the functional circuit to switch off but the maintenance work meant the backup was unavailable.
Whāngārei residents are being told to conserve water and avoid flushing toilets (except where necessary) because "we don't know for sure how long the power will be out...''
"Please also take care on the roads as traffic lights are out,'' a statement on the Council's Facebook page said.
General manager infrastructure Simon Weston said: "The less stress we put on these systems during the outage, the sooner we will be able to recover when power comes back up.
"We are liaising with power companies and will publicise any information as it comes to hand.''
Bryant Curreen tries to make sense of the traffic chaos at the intersection of Rust Avenue /Cameron and Bank Streets in Whangārei during the power cut this morning. Photo John / Stone
Power will be out for at least two hours and probably longer, says Northpower.
The spokesman said the cause of the outage was unknown.
He said the energy company was having trouble with its phone lines and customers would experience difficulty speaking to the company.
