Hazard or fallen line

Stay back 8 metres minimum and call 111 first. Salt-soaked debris near a coastal line in the New Plymouth area can be highly conductive.

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Powerco

New Plymouth and Taranaki

~56k connections in Taranaki
0800 27 27 27

National Powerco faults line, 24/7. Taranaki calls route to the New Plymouth depot.

Coverage: New Plymouth Central, Vogeltown, Strandon, Bell Block, Spotswood, Waitara, Inglewood, Stratford, Eltham, Hawera, Opunake, Oakura.

Open Powerco live outage map See full Powerco guide

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 suburb. 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.

Live power outages in New Zealand
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Source: user reports · Selectra

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.

Before you submit

Have you called your lines company first? They are the only party that can dispatch a crew. This form is a community signal that helps neighbours, not an emergency channel. For a fallen line or any hazard, call 111 immediately.

Anonymous submission

Mountain, coast, paddocks

What drives Taranaki outages

Taranaki has three distinct outage profiles depending on where in the region you live: coastal city, mountain fringe, or open dairy paddocks.

Westerly gales + salt

New Plymouth coast, Oakura, Fitzroy: exposed-coast feeders combine sustained westerly winds with sea-salt deposit. Conductor clashing and flashovers are the dominant failure modes.

Mountain snow + ice

Inglewood, Stratford, Toko, Egmont Village: winter snow loading on conductors causes sag and switch trips. Restoration is slow on the mountain spurs because access is by truck on narrow rural roads.

Dairy paddock strikes

Hawera, Eltham, Patea, Opunake, rural Waimate West: farm machinery (silage trucks, tankers, irrigation pivots) striking overhead lines is a regular cause of localised outages. Powerco runs an annual rural-safety campaign for this exact reason.

Powerco damage claim, Taranaki

Same Powerco process as the rest of the country, but Taranaki claims often hinge on whether the outage was attributed to weather or to equipment.

  1. 1Call 0800 27 27 27 and ask for the incident reference.
  2. 2Lodge the online form within 30 days at powerco.co.nz.
  3. 3Frame the cause around the specific equipment event (transformer, switchgear, conductor failure) rather than the wind itself, where evidence supports it.
  4. 4Decision in 4 to 8 weeks.

Taranaki questions

Frequently asked questions: New Plymouth outages

Powerco, on 0800 27 27 27, 24/7. The same number covers Bell Block, Waitara, Inglewood, Stratford, Hawera, Opunake and the rest of Taranaki. For a hazard, dial 111 first.

Open country exposure to the prevailing westerlies. New Plymouth and the coastal strip catch the full force of Tasman Sea winds, while Mt Taranaki accelerates and funnels winds across the inland feeders. Sustained gusts over 90 km/h are common, especially in late winter and spring. Powerco has invested in conductor spacing and tree management to reduce wind-driven outages, but the underlying climate cannot be changed.

Single urban fault in New Plymouth: 45 to 90 minutes. Suburban (Bell Block, Waitara): 1 to 2 hours. Rural mountain spur (Inglewood, Stratford): 2 to 6 hours. Major westerly event: 6 to 24 hours, longer in the most remote dairy areas. Taranaki Base Hospital and water-pumping infrastructure are priority restoration.

Pure-weather outages are typically classified as force majeure, which weakens a direct damage claim. The path that works is when the cause was a specific equipment failure (transformer surge, switchgear trip producing a transient) rather than wind itself. A registered electrician's report linking the appliance failure to the equipment event is the key. Otherwise, your contents insurance is the more reliable channel.

Yes, at least 5 working days before the work, by letter or email to the address. The same outages appear on the live outage map under "Planned". Medically-dependent customers can register through their retailer for proactive notification.