Major updates
Ex-tropical Cyclone Tam - update 5pm Saturday 19 April
Crews have made good progress today fixing broken equipment in Hauraki and south Waikato following ex-tropical Cyclone Tam, with most customers’ power expected to be back on by tonight.
Unfortunately, because of flooding and boggy conditions, we’re unable to access some customers’ properties in the Matatoki and Putāruru areas to carry out repairs. This means your power will not be able to be reconnected until our crews can safely access the sites. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
Update - 9.30am Saturday 19 April
Our crews are making good progress in challenging conditions and have been out since first light making repairs.
Yesterday, more than 1,100 customers were affected; as of this morning, that number has reduced to 190.
If you're without power - thank you for your continued patience and understanding. Some of these remaining outages may involve major repairs where access has been completely cut off by flooding. Our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to have you reconnected.
How customers can stay safe
If people see downed power lines, it’s important to:
* Stay at least 10m away from the lines and poles - that's about the length of a bus.
* Call 111 immediately or Powerco's emergency number, 0800 27 27 27.
Downed lines should always be treated as live.
We respond 24/7 to lines down incidents on our electricity network. Learn more about what to do in an emergency here.
What to do in the event of an outage
If customers do experience an outage, they’re advised to report their outage by:
* Contacting their retailer (the company they pay their power bill to), or
* Using the report an outage form on Powerco’s website here.
Customers wanting information about power cuts can go to Powerco’s power outage webpage or can contact their electricity retailer (the company you pay your power bill to).
Ex-tropical Cyclone Tam - update 3pm Friday 18 April
About 755 customers are without power in Hauraki, Waikato and Coromandel.
If you are without power, please be prepared to continue be without power until conditions improve for our crews to access your area and safely make repairs.
Update - 8.30am Friday 18 April
About 1,140 customers are currently without power. This morning crews are making repairs where it is safe to do so.
Access due to road closures and flooding is an issue.
If you are without power, please be prepared to continue be without power until conditions improve for our crews to access your area and safely make repairs.
Update - 3.30pm Thursday 17 April
Strong wind gusts and heavy rain are hindering the response to restore power to affected customers in Hauraki, eastern and southern Waikato, and Coromandel regions.
To keep field crews safe in the storm conditions, crews are currently only responding to emergency situations.
It is important that, if you are affected by an outage because of storm damage, that you prepare to be without power overnight Thursday.
We will be doing all we can with the technology we have in place to minimise the outage areas, however, we will need the winds to die down before we can make repairs to physical damage such as broken lines.
We have extra field crews on standby ready to respond when the weather abates.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.