By Fallen line in a paddock or on a lane
Stay back at least 8 metres, treat every downed wire as live, and call 111 first. A line dropped across a rural fence in South Taranaki can energise the wire and the fence for hundreds of metres, so keep stock and people well clear.
Help your neighbours
Live community map & report a power cut
If the neighbouring farm or the next house down the road is also dark, 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 on your stretch of line. It does not replace the call to your lines company.
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
Your lines company and its 24/7 fault line
Only the lines company that owns the poles and wires on your road can dispatch a crew. Call the number below if your report shows the outage is on the network.
Powerco
Hawera and South Taranaki
National Powerco faults line, answered 24/7. South Taranaki calls are routed to the local Hawera depot crews.
Coverage: Hawera, Eltham, Normanby, Manaia, Kaponga, Opunake, Patea, Waverley, and the surrounding South Taranaki dairy country.
Ring plain and rural spurs
What drives Hawera outages
South Taranaki is flat, open and farmed hard. The outages here are mostly about wind across exposed lines, farm machinery, and the long distances a crew has to cover.
Open ring-plain wind
Hawera, Normanby, Manaia: there is nothing to break the westerly across the ring plain, so conductors swing and clash in a strong blow. Branch and debris strikes on the longer feeders are the most common cause of a flicker turning into a full cut.
Dairy machinery strikes
Eltham, Kaponga, rural Waimate West: silage trucks, milk tankers, diggers and tall irrigation gear catching an overhead line is a year-round cause of localised outages. The risk peaks through the spring grass-cutting and effluent season.
Long lines to drive
Patea, Waverley, the back roads near Hāwera: a single rural spur can run many kilometres to the last farm. Restoration is slower out here because the crew often has to patrol the line by truck to locate the fault before they can isolate and repair it.
A Hawera tip worth keeping
If you milk, run a freezer full of meat, or rely on a bore pump, a flicker on a windy night often clears itself within seconds as the network auto-recloses. Wait a minute before assuming a full outage, check the map, then call 0800 27 27 27 if power has not come back and neighbours are also out. Keeping a charged power bank and a torch by the door saves fumbling in the dark on a rural property.
Appliance damaged after a Hawera outage
Powerco does not run a public consumer damage-claim portal for South Taranaki, so the realistic path for a surge that kills an appliance runs through your own cover and your retailer rather than the lines company.
- 1Call 0800 27 27 27 and ask for the incident reference, plus the date, time and recorded cause of the outage.
- 2Lodge the claim through your contents insurance first; a sudden power surge is a standard insured event under most NZ household policies.
- 3Put a written request to your electricity retailer as well, attaching photos, the original receipt and a registered electrician's report that links the failure to the supply event.
- 4Allow 4 to 8 weeks. Appliances under 5 years fare best, and claims tied to a specific equipment fault succeed more often than those blamed on the weather alone.
Hawera questions
Frequently asked questions: Hawera outages
Powerco, on 0800 27 27 27, 24 hours a day. The same number covers Eltham, Normanby, Manaia, Kaponga, Patea and the rest of South Taranaki. If there is a fallen line, sparks or smoke, dial 111 first.
Check the live community map above and Powerco's own map at outages.powerco.co.nz. If neighbours on your road are also without power, the fault is on the network and a crew is most likely already aware. If it is only your house, check your main switch and fuses before you call.
The dairy country runs on long overhead spurs that cross open, windy paddocks, while town streets sit on shorter, better-protected feeders. Wind, vegetation and farm machinery all have more line to hit out there, and a single break can drop a long run of customers. Powerco invests in tree management and conductor spacing, but the geography of the ring plain is the underlying driver.
Town fault in Hawera itself: 45 to 90 minutes once a crew is on site. A rural spur towards Patea, Waverley or the back of Kaponga can take 2 to 6 hours, because the crew has to patrol the line to find the fault first. A major regional storm can run longer, with the most remote farms restored last.
Yes. Powerco notifies affected addresses at least 5 working days ahead by letter or email, and lists the work on the live outage map under planned outages. If someone in the home is medically dependent on power, register through your electricity retailer so you get proactive notice and a contingency check.
There is no public Powerco consumer-claims portal for this network, so your contents insurance is usually the most reliable channel, backed by a written request to your retailer. A registered electrician's report tying the damage to the supply event is the key piece of evidence. Pure-weather outages are generally treated as force majeure, which weakens a direct claim against the lines company.
Nearby outage guides
Power outages across Taranaki
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 Taranaki.
See the regional hub: Taranaki power outages, or browse every New Zealand region.