Power outages in New Plymouth

Powerco owns the lines in New Plymouth, and their faults line is 0800 27 27 27. Call them, not your power company: your retailer sells you the electricity but does not own the network, so they will only pass the report on. If you can see a downed line, sparking, or anything on fire, call 111 first and stay at least 10 metres away. Treat every fallen line as live.

This page does not show live outages. For what is out right now and when power is due back, use the distributor's own outage map or call their faults line. Powerco publishes a live map covering New Plymouth, and it is the fastest way to see whether the outage is theirs and how many properties are affected. Before you call, flick your main switch and check whether your neighbours are out too. If it is only your property, the fault is likely inside it and a registered electrician is who you need.

Powerco, in the Taranaki (Powerco) network reporting region. The nearest places we list on the same network are Inglewood (13km), Waitara (15km), Stratford (35km), Eltham (44km), Opunake (47km) and Hawera (61km), so an outage in New Plymouth often affects them too. You cannot choose your lines company. It is set by where you live.

No. Whichever power company you are with in New Plymouth, the electricity arrives over the same Powerco network, so a fault affects everyone on it equally. What switching can change is the price of the energy and the service you get on the phone — not the poles and wires. On the pricing side, New Plymouth averages 43.04c per kWh including GST, of which 19.66c is Powerco's lines charge.

There is no reliable general answer, and anyone giving you one is guessing. It depends on the cause. A blown fuse on a single street is usually restored in an hour or two, while storm damage across the Taranaki region can take a day or more. Powerco publishes an estimated restoration time once crews have assessed the fault, on their outage map.