Lightning may have caused West Auckland power outage

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A widespread power outage in West Auckland last night may have been caused by a lightning strike, lines company Vector says.

At the height of the outage, some 10,000 houses were without power after the Hepburn Rd substation failed about 7.15pm.

A large number of customers had power restored by 8.30pm, with the remainder brought back on at 11pm.

Adverse weather may have played a part in the outage, with several lightning strikes being reported throughout the Auckland area yesterday, Vector said.

Vector and Transpower crews were back at the substation this morning to continue repairs.

Vector's Outage App was hit 23,632 times between 8pm and 11pm.