Power is back on for most of Northland after a circuit supplying electricity to the region was tripped during routine maintenance.
The entire region lost power this morning, with a Top Energy spokesperson earlier warning it could be out for the rest of the afternoon as workers tried to fix the problem.
Power has since been restored to the Whangārei CBD, Bream Bay, Ruakākā and Waipu. Work is currently underway to restore power to Kamo and Kauri, before looking at other areas, a North Power spokesperson told 1 NEWS.
Top Energy is urging residents not to contact power companies but instead visit Top Energy, North Power and Transpower Facebook pages for updates.
Transpower NZ spokesperson Geoff Wishart told 1 NEWS they were made aware of the outage at 9.35am.
"Transpower has two circuits that provide power, one of these circuits was down for routine maintenance," Mr Wishart said. “During this time the other circuit appears to have tripped.”
Transpower spokesperson Patrick O’Meara later told 1 NEWS both circuits have been brought up, with the tripped circuit being restored.
He says residents may have a “little longer to wait” as companies distribute the power. They have no information at this time as to how many people have been affected.
People are asked to keep up to date on Transpower's website .
Transpower apologised to affected communities from Bream Bay to Kaitaia.
"We have just lost service to you. Our crews are working with Northpower and Top Energy NZ to understand what might have happened," the company said in a Facebook post.
Whangārei District Council general manager for infrastructure Simon Weston urged residents to conserve water and avoid flushing toilets except where necessary.
"We don’t know for sure how long the power will be out and Whangārei District Council’s water supply and sewer systems require power," he said.
"Please also take care on the roads as traffic lights are out. The less stress we put on these systems during the outage, the sooner we will be able to recover when power comes back up."
Civil Defence Northland also issued a warning for people to "stay safe out there and treat all lines as live at all times".
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