Hundreds of Northcote homes without power after fault

As many as 1000 houses in Northcote are without power following a fault on Vector's network. Photo / Google

Several houses in Northcote are still without power due to a fault on Vector's network that knocked out power for as many as 1000 homes this morning.

Of those still without power were a group of midwives working by electronic candlelight and hot-spotting their mobile phones to their laptops.

Fire Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) responded to the issue on Akoranga Dr after reports of a loud bang around 7.50am.

Staff arrived to find an arcing power pole on the road.

Midwife Renee Latta of The Cottage Midwives said her building was still without power at 1pm and staff had been working by electronic candlelight since 8.30am.

The midwives were carrying on with their candles and working around the outage by using mobile data to take their computers online.

Despite this, conditions were not great for them to assess pregnant women and provide aid where needed.

"There is no air condition so it's very hot, it makes them uncomfortable.

"I am burning through some data. It keeps dropping out, which is annoying."

Other businesses in the health hub had no choice but to close down for the day, she said.

The general practitioners had re-booked appointments for next week and the cafe has closed down for the day, she said.

Two other businesses that carried out surgery were operating on diesel generators.

She expected the power would not be restored until this evening.

At 8.50am Vector staff had arrived on site and found a fault had occurred on one of their Northcote feeders at 5 Akoranga Dr.

The number of properties affected was not clear but a feeder in the Northcote area generally provided power to several hundred or a thousand properties.

At 10.50am Vector said a handful of properties were still without power.

"The rest have had their power restored through back feeding over the course of the morning.

"The outage was caused by an insulator fault, which was most likely due to debris falling on the line or a bird strike," a spokeswoman for the company said.