By Fallen line, sparks or smoke
Stay back at least 8 metres, keep clear of standing water near a downed line, and call 111 first. On the peninsula's bush ridges and flood-prone Hauraki flats, a tree-felled line can lie hidden across a road or in surface water.
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 town. 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
The whole Coromandel Peninsula and the Hauraki district share a single lines company. Only Powerco can dispatch a crew to your street, so call the number below once your report shows the outage is on the network.
Powerco
The whole peninsula and Hauraki, one lines company
National Powerco faults line, answered 24/7. The same number covers Thames, Coromandel, Whitianga, Tairua, Paeroa, Waihi and every settlement between them.
Coverage: Thames, Coromandel township, Whitianga, Whangamata, Tairua, Pauanui, Matarangi, Cooks Beach, Hahei, Kuaotunu, Paeroa, Waihi, Waihi Beach, Ngatea and the surrounding Hauraki Plains.
Ridges, coast and holiday peaks
Why the Coromandel is one of NZ's more outage-prone networks
The peninsula's geography works against the grid. A spine of steep, bush-covered ranges forces long single feeders out to coastal towns, and those lines are exposed to storms, slips and tree fall in ways a flat city network is not. Below the ranges, the Hauraki Plains add a flood and weather dimension of their own.
Long single feeders
Whitianga, Tairua, Pauanui, Coromandel township: the east-coast towns are fed by long radial lines over the ranges. A single fault on the line can darken a whole town, and there is often no second path to reroute power while crews work.
Storms, slips and tree fall
The bush ridges and SH25: ex-tropical cyclones and heavy rain bring trees and slips down across the lines and roads. When access is cut, repair crews can be delayed reaching the fault even after they have located it.
Summer population spikes
Whangamata, Pauanui, Matarangi, Waihi Beach: holiday towns swell many times over at New Year. Peak demand on lines built for a small resident base raises the chance of an overload trip just as the most people are affected.
A Coromandel and Hauraki tip
If a storm is forecast over a holiday weekend, treat an outage as a real possibility, not a surprise. Charge phones and power banks, keep a torch and a battery radio handy, and fill the car before the weather hits, as fuel pumps and EFTPOS go down with the power. On the Hauraki Plains (Ngatea, Turua, Kerepehi), flooding can isolate roads, so a longer outage there can take crews extra time to reach. Bach owners should note that a holiday home left empty can stay off for hours after restoration if the main switch was tripped.
Appliance damaged after a Coromandel outage? Your claim path
With more storm outages than most regions, surge damage is a real risk on the peninsula. Powerco does not run a standing public surge-claim portal, so the dependable route is through your insurer and your retailer.
- 1Call 0800 27 27 27 and ask for the incident reference, the time and the recorded cause of the outage.
- 2Lodge a claim with your contents insurer, since surge and power-fluctuation damage to appliances is normally covered by a standard contents policy, including at a holiday home.
- 3Send a written notice to your electricity retailer with the incident reference, photos, the receipt and a registered electrician's report linking the failure to the network event.
- 4Expect 4 to 8 weeks. Appliances under 5 years old with a clear electrician's report do best; storm and tree-fall outages are usually treated as force majeure, which is why the contents-insurance route matters most here.
Coromandel and Hauraki questions
Frequently asked questions: Coromandel outages
Powerco, 24 hours a day, on 0800 27 27 27. The same number covers Thames, Coromandel township, Whitianga, Tairua, Whangamata, Paeroa, Waihi and the Hauraki Plains. For a hazard such as a fallen line, dial 111 first.
Check the live community map above for nearby reports, then confirm against the official Powerco outage map, which plots active and planned outages by address right across the peninsula and Hauraki. If nothing is shown and only your property is affected, the fault is most likely your own switchboard.
Geography. The peninsula's steep, bush-clad ranges force long single feeders out to coastal towns like Whitianga, Tairua and Coromandel township, with no second path to reroute power during a fault. Those lines are heavily exposed to storms, slips and tree fall, and access roads can be blocked just when crews need them. It is one of the more outage-prone networks in the upper North Island for that reason.
A single fault in a township such as Thames or Whitianga is often back within 1 to 3 hours. Faults on the long coastal feeders or after a storm can run much longer, from several hours to more than a day in the worst events, because crews must clear trees and slips to reach the line. Remote settlements and the flood-prone Hauraki Plains tend to be restored last.
Peak holiday demand in towns like Whangamata, Pauanui, Matarangi and Waihi Beach pushes lines built for a small resident base much harder, which raises the chance of an overload trip. Combine that with summer storms and the holiday period is when many residents see their cuts. Charging devices, keeping a torch and a battery radio, and filling the car before bad weather are sensible precautions.
Powerco has no standing public surge-claim portal, so start with your contents insurance, which usually covers surge damage to appliances, including at a holiday home. Also send a written request to your electricity retailer with the incident reference, photos, the receipt and a registered electrician's report. Because most peninsula outages are storm-driven and treated as force majeure, the insurance route is generally the more reliable one.
Nearby outage guides
Power outages across the Waikato
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 the Waikato.
See the regional hub: Waikato power outages, or browse every New Zealand region.