More than 10,000 Whanganui homes affected by power cut on Sunday afternoon

More than 10,000 Whanganui homes were affeccted by a short power cut yesterday afternoon which Poweco says is not connected to the solar storm. Photo / Bevan Conley

A short but widespread power cut was experienced by more than 10,000 Whanganui homes yesterday aftenoon.

The power outage at 2.43pm was caused by a supply issue.

A Powerco spokeswoman said power was restored to 10,855 customers in Whanganui in seven minutes.

Affected areas included: Aramoho, Brassey Rd, College, Pitt St, Springvale, St Johns and Westmere.

Powerco is currently investigating the cause of the fault.

“The cause of the fault is under investigation, but it is not suspected to be connected to the weekend’s solar storm.”

Transpower issued a “grid emergency” notice on Saturday and shut down some transmission lines from operation due to the onset of a geomagnetic storm as a precaution.

A spokesperson for the agency, which operates the New Zealand power grid, said the storm was likely to affect Earth over the weekend because of significant solar activity.

In Whanganui, people gathered at viewing spots such as Castlecliff Beach to catch a glimpse of an aurora australis over New Zealand on Saturday night.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.