Transpower is investigating how lightning strikes cut power to 74,000 Bay of Plenty homes on Saturday.
The company believes several substations and a major powerline were hit, however a spokeswoman said such a weather related outage was unusual.
Powerco network operations manager Ross Dixon said customers in Tauranga, Mt Maunganui and Te Puke were without power from 5.20pm until 6.40pm yesterday.
A report from Transpower was expected within two days.
- NZPA
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