Thousands lose power in Upper Hutt

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Thousands of Upper Hutt residents went without power for almost an hour this morning after tree maintenance work interfered with power lines.

About 4800 customers in the Trentham and Silverstream areas lost power after the outage in the Trentham substation area about 10.50am.

Wellington Electricity spokesman Hugo Armstrong said the cut was caused by people cutting trees, which fell across power lines.

The power was restored to all customers by 11.45am.

Mr Armstrong said cutting trees near power lines was potentially dangerous and could incur significant inconvenience or costs for other customers.

"We urge anybody cutting trees anywhere near power lines to either get a professional contractor to do it, or two contact us to seek advice about it."