Power out for residents at Metropolis building in Auckland CBD

Residents in the Auckland apartment block that are without power. Kate Thomas and Lee Travis huddling in front of a candle. Photo / Supplied

Residents in an upmarket apartment building in Auckland Central have been told they might not get their power switched on for another three days.

One couple living on the 9th floor of the apartment lost a hundred dollars worth of groceries, were unable to work or cook at home and have layered up in an effort to keep warm.

Lee Travers, 33 and Kate Thomas, 28, were this evening huddled in front of some candles - the only source of light they had.

"It was a bit of a novelty on the first night; yesterday it was just annoying when I came back with all this food shopping I had to dump."

Thomas said they couldn't charge their phones or laptops, had no access to wi-fi, and there was nothing to keep them warm.

"It's absolutely freezing," she said. "Last night we managed to get a kettle going with one of the plugs in the hallway and managed to get one hot water bottle.

"We've both got about three jumpers on."

Thomas said it was really frustrating to be kept in the dark - both literally and metaphorically speaking.

"We haven't been told what's going on, just that they are looking into it and there will be a full report."

She said with only one lift working in the building - some residents were getting frustrated at the long wait.

"This guy was shouting at it for about 20 minutes."

Thomas said there was a mix of people living in the building, including some in their sixties and seventies."

Contractors have been working since Sunday on restoring power to the 40-storey, 400-apartment Metropolis apartment on Courthouse Lane.

Body corporate representative Bruce Speers confirmed there was an outage to a "number of buildings" in the Auckland CBD on Sunday which included the apartment.

"Unfortunately when the power came back on, one of the power supply lines [in the apartment] failed."

Common areas inside the apartment, including emergency areas and lifts, were still operating.

The power was still out at the Metropolis building last night. Photo / Supplied

Residents could also access hot water but electricity and lighting was yet to be restored.

Speers said in situations like this, power supply in the hallway was active, so residents were able to access electricity in case of medical emergencies.

Tonight, a resident said notices were posted on apartment doors telling residents that power will not be restored until 5pm on Friday. That was to expected to be the "worst-case scenario".

"Please be assured that contractors are working around the clock to resolve the power outage as fast as they are able," the note said.

"Unfortunately extensive and complex repairs are required in addition to replacing custom-made parts that are not off-the-shelf. These repairs are not as straight forward as initially hoped."

Power had been restored for restaurants and other businesses on the ground floor of the building.

An email which went out to residents yesterday by body corporate administrators stated further repair was now required by Vector, which they couldn't complete until late that evening as they had to shut down part of the CBD.

It stated power wouldn't be restored until this morning.

"When the electricians went to restore power at midday today [yesterday] the process blew another primary circuit breaker."

"We understand the frustrations that this is causing, but can assure you we are using all efforts and measures available to restore power to the building."

Another notice was issued at 5pm yesterday afternoon which stated the damage to the residential apartments power supply was "now more significant than previously reported, and due to the age of some of the components, it is now likely that power may not be restored until tomorrow [this] afternoon".

It also stated power would be restored in the Magistrates building in front of Metropolis and retail shops on the ground floor of the building by 10pm yesterday.