A broken cable appears to have caused a major power outage on the Kapiti Coast tonight.
About 20,000 households on the Electra network's Paraparaumu substation lost power about 7.30pm.
Chief executive Neil Simmonds said power was restored to most homes by 8.30pm.
However, crews need to confirm the cause of the outage before restoring power to those closest to the fault.
The Electra website and app crashed unexpectedly during the outage due to high demand.