Power outage affects thousands (update)

Power is out in parts of Rotorua and the wider region.

Reserve power generation has been brought online, after a fault at the Huntly power station caused major outages in the North Island, including Auckland and Wellington.

The fault in the connection system at about 12.38pm led to about 500 MW of power being disconnected to protect the North Island power transmission system, national grid operator Transpower said.

The cause and extent of the outage remained unknown and crews were working to repair the issue.

Reserve generation was brought online this afternoon and some customers have since had their power restored, Transpower said at about 1.45pm.

Auckland supplier Vector said the outage had affected its northern and Auckland electricity networks.

Most Auckland customers now had power, expect for water heating, after power was restored from about 1.15pm.

Wellington Electricity said the outage had affected customers in the lower and central Hutt Valley, Petone, and suburbs including Hataitai and Karori.

Electricity was currently being restored.

Power outages were also reported in Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Hawke's Bay and Havelock North.

Daily Post readers reported outages at Owhata, Selwyn Heights, Waiotapu, Western Heights and Pukehangi.

Jane Trask said on The Daily Post's Facebook page it had been out in Pukehangi for two hours.

Karen Hansen said the outage in Western Heights was "so annoying".

Emilie Bockman posted that power was out for two hours in Westbrook.

Transpower said it was working with distribution companies around the North Island to enable them to restore power to the remaining affected customers.

About 30 per cent of Powerco's network has gone down, affecting an area across the central and lower North Island.

Power has been lost to parts of the Manawatu, Wanganui and South Taranaki.

Powerco did not say why the power has been lost but expected it to restored by 4.30pm

-APNZ