Power back on at more than 800 Tauranga properties

The power went out for 835 properties in Tauranga today. Image / Powerco

Power has been restored to the remaining properties affected by a power cut in and around Judea, Tauranga, this morning.

The outage initially affected 835 PowerCo customers at 11.19am.

A total of 665 customers’ power was restored by 12.30pm, with the remaining 170 reconnected about 4pm after damaged equipment was repaired, a PowerCo spokesperson said.

“I can now confirm that the outage occurred following a report of sparking power lines in Collingwood St, which was reported to Powerco by Fire and Emergency NZ.”

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson earlier said a pole isolator had blown, which was quite likely the cause of the power outage.

“It has been left with the power authority.”

During the outage, a Birch Ave worker said power was out at his workplace, and it looked as if the whole street was impacted.

“I was in a meeting and the room went black.”