Power has been restored after a major outage on the west coast of the South Island.
Power lines Photo: 123RF
Transpower said it lost the power supply to the West Coast at 9.22am this morning and an investigation is underway to find out the cause and prevent it happening again.
It said a technician went to the site at Kikiwa near Nelson and identifed the fault.
Transpower said local lines companies would now be restoring supply to customers.
Areas that lost power include Murchison, Īnangahua, Reefton, Atarau, Dobson, Greymouth, Hokitika, Ōtira, Arthur's Pass, Kūmara and Roberston.
It has apologised to people those areas.
West Coast emergency management says it's working with local councils to ensure their facilities have back-up power.
Emergency management says people should treat all electrical connections as live at all times, as power may be restored at anytime.
West Coast DHB said it used backup generators at hospitals.