Vector says compensation from this month's power cuts - which affected 85,000 customers - won't be discussed until the cause of the fire that sparked them was known.

New Zealand shares gained for a third day yesterday, paced by Contact Energy and TrustPower, as investors spooked by recent volatility sought high-yield stocks. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose to a record.

Up to 80 per cent of Auckland electricity customers have signed contracts that allow their hot water to be cut off - but many were unaware until the blackouts.

Some Auckland residents were without hot water until late this morning following yet another fault with Vector’s electricity network.

An investigation into the substation fire which cut power to tens of thousands of Aucklanders will be jointly carried out by Transpower and Vector.

About 200 customers remain without power after extreme weather damaged power lines in the central and lower North Island yesterday.

Vector and Transpower will audit vital equipment at power substations in a bid to identify other potentially vulnerable or problem areas within Auckland's beleaguered electricity network.

Parnell hotels were full up with families and people suffering with health issues, said hotel staff in the area.

Auckland suburbs that have been without power for more than a day and a half face a further delay until the lights come back on.

Power should be restored to all Auckland suburbs by 5am tomorrow, lines company Vector said.

The NZ Transport Agency said was currently heavy on the Northern Motorway into the city, due to the flow on effects from yesterday's powercut.

The reason so many people lost power yesterday is because the substation at Penrose is very old and supplies a disproportionate amount of power to a large area of the city, says an energy expert.

It's that happy time of year for hundreds of thousands of Auckland households - the annual dividend payout from the AECT is in the mail.

Vector is in a High Court dispute with Inland Revenue about whether a $53m payment the electricity company received is taxable.

Auckland lines company Vector says it is still assessing the financial cost of last week's storm.

Emergency workers have described how they watched signs of life ebb away from an Auckland man trapped inside a wreckage surrounded by live power-lines.

An Auckland lawyer is warning about solar panel issues, saying house buyers and sellers could fall into a trap if they don't know who owns them.

Almost 1000 properties in South Auckland were without power this morning following an outage on the Vector network.

The words stand-up comedian and sold-out stadium hardly ever appear in that same sentence in this country, but comedy mega-star Michael McIntyre regularly fills Britain's largest venues and he had no trouble packing out the Vector Arena.