South Waikato power outage affects more than 7000 properties

Power was out to more than 7000 South Waikato properties on Thursday morning.

More than 7000 homes and businesses in Tokoroa were without electricity on Thursday morning.

The unplanned outage at 9.21am was caused by lines coming down on Baird Road, with 7041 customers affected.

Lines company Powerco said it was still investigating the cause.

“Customers were progressively restored, with all customers except one reconnected by 10am,” Powerco said in a statement.

“Field crews are on site carrying out repairs and the remaining customer is expected to be reconnected this afternoon.”

Robert Harris in Tokoroa said it had a store full of customers at the time.

“We were closed for just over an hour and we have to give credit back to the customers because we had to evacuate the store,” a Robert Harris spokesman said.

“The power is back up and running now and we’re busy again with customers.”

Powerco said if people came across downed power lines, it was important to stay at least 10 metres away from the lines and poles – about the length of a bus.

“Downed lines should always be treated as live, call 111 immediately or PowerCo’s emergency number, 0800 27 27 27.”

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.