By Fallen line, sparks or smoke
Stay back at least 8 metres, keep children and stock well clear of any line on the ground, and call 111 first. Rural Franklin has long overhead runs across paddocks, so a downed conductor can be hard to spot at night: treat every drooping or fallen wire as live.
Help your neighbours
Live community map & report a power cut
If neighbours are also without power, the fault is on the network, not your switchboard. The map below shows outages reported by other Selectra readers across New Zealand in real time. Use it as a first diagnostic before you call: if an active outage is already plotted near you, crews likely know about it. A short anonymous report helps others see what is happening in your area. It does not replace the call to Counties Energy.
Immediate danger
Fallen power line, sparks, burning smell or smoke? Call 111 before reporting anything else. Stay back at least 8 metres from any downed line.
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Report a power cut
Thanks: your report is recorded
Now make the official call to your lines company so a crew is dispatched. For a fallen line or any hazard, dial 111 first.
Who fixes the fault
Counties Energy, not Vector, owns the Franklin wires
This is the part Pukekohe households get wrong most often. The Vector outage map and the Vector fault line do not cover Franklin. Call the number below: only Counties Energy can dispatch a crew to a Pukekohe, Waiuku or rural Franklin fault.
CE
Counties Energy
Pukekohe, Waiuku and the Franklin district
24/7 faults line. Counties Energy, the lines company for south Auckland's Franklin district, owns these poles and wires: the Vector fault line cannot help here.
Coverage: Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau, Pokeno, Bombay, Buckland, Patumahoe, Clarks Beach, Waiau Pa, Glenbrook, Karaka, and the southern fringe of Papakura.
Why Franklin loses power
Rural spurs, market gardens and storm-exposed paddocks
Counties Energy runs a network that looks nothing like Vector's dense urban grid. Most of Franklin is served by long overhead lines crossing open farmland, which gives the area a distinct outage profile.
Long rural spurs
Aka Aka, Otaua, Glenbrook, Mauku: a single overhead spur can serve a handful of farms over many kilometres. One fault on the line takes the whole spur dark, and the crew has to drive the length of it to find the cause.
Market-garden load
Pukekohe, Patumahoe, Buckland: the district's famous vegetable growers run irrigation pumps, coolstores and packhouses. Heavy seasonal load on the same feeders that supply homes can lengthen restoration when equipment trips.
Coastal Waiuku wind
Waiuku, Clarks Beach, Waiau Pa: the Manukau Harbour edge takes the brunt of westerly fronts. Wind brings branches across lines and salt-laden gusts stress overhead insulators on the exposed coastal runs.
Pukekohe-specific tip
Before you call, open the Counties Energy outage map rather than the Vector one. If your address already shows an active fault with an estimated restoration time, the crew is on it: keep the line free for new reports. Save 0800 100 202 in your phone now, because a Vector search result is the wrong number for Franklin.
Counties Energy damage claim: process and realistic outcomes
If a power surge on restoration kills a fridge, heat pump or coolstore controller, Counties Energy accepts appliance damage claims by email. A smaller territory than Vector usually means a faster turnaround.
- 1Call 0800 100 202 and request the incident number. Note the time, the duration and any visible cause (transformer hum, tree on line, vehicle into pole).
- 2Email your claim to [email protected] within 30 days of the event, quoting that incident number.
- 3Attach photos, the appliance model and age, the original receipt if you have it, and a registered electrician's report linking the failure to the network event.
- 4Decision typically in 4 to 6 weeks. Equipment-driven faults have the best success rate; storm-driven outages are usually treated as weather, not negligence, and then your contents insurance is the better path.
Pukekohe-specific questions
Frequently asked questions: Pukekohe and Franklin outages
Counties Energy, 24 hours a day, on 0800 100 202. Do not call the Vector fault line: Vector does not own the Franklin network. The Counties number also covers Waiuku, Tuakau, Pokeno and the rural blocks around Pukekohe. For a fallen line or hazard, call 111 first.
Counties Energy, not Vector. Pukekohe, Waiuku, Tuakau, Pokeno, Bombay, Patumahoe and the surrounding Franklin farmland are all on the Counties network. This catches a lot of people out because the rest of Auckland is Vector. The southern fringe of Papakura is also Counties: check your exact address on the Counties outage map if you are near the boundary.
For a fault on an urban Pukekohe feeder: 45 to 90 minutes. For a rural spur (Aka Aka, Otaua, Glenbrook, Mauku): 1 to 4 hours, because the crew often has to patrol the line to find the cause. After a major storm, the most remote Franklin properties can wait longest, since crews restore the largest groups of homes first.
Yes, if the surge came from the network and Counties Energy is shown to have been at fault (faulty equipment, poor maintenance). Email [email protected] within 30 days with the incident number, photos, the original receipt and a registered electrician's report. Equipment failures have the highest success rate. Storm events are usually excluded, in which case your contents insurance is the better route.
Yes. Counties gives advance notice for planned maintenance, by letter or email to the property, and lists upcoming work on its outage map under planned outages. If a medically-dependent person lives in your household (oxygen concentrator, dialysis, CPAP), register with your retailer so the lines company can provide proactive notice.
The Auckland power outage hub covers the whole city, including the Vector territory that wraps around Franklin to the north. From there you can reach the dedicated guides for south Auckland, west Auckland and the other parts of the network.
Nearby outage guides
Power outages across Auckland
Same storm front, different lines company. If the cut reaches a neighbouring town, here is the right 24/7 fault line and live map for the rest of Auckland.
See the full Auckland outage guide, or browse every New Zealand region.