Do this first
Fire, smoke or someone hurt: call 111
Don't touch anyone who may still be in contact with power. If you can reach the main switch safely, turn it off.
A line down: stay 10 metres back
Vector says to stay at least ten metres away from damaged power lines and equipment. Treat every line as live, keep others clear, call 111 if anyone's in danger, then call the lines company.
Burn marks, smells or crackling at the board
Don't touch the switchboard. ENA says to contact your local lines company straight away.
Water in the fittings
After a flood or a leak, leave anything that's been wet switched off until a licensed electrician has checked it, even if it seems to work.
Only your house is off
Check whether an RCD or the main switch has tripped, and reset it once. A switch that drops out again the moment you reset it is telling you something: leave it off and get an electrician.
How faults get fixed in Auckland
Where Vector's job stops
Vector generally owns the lines, poles and equipment up to the point of supply, usually an isolating fuse at your boundary or on the nearest pole. From there to the meter, the service line belongs to the property owner. Meters and hot water relays are your power company's responsibility.
The lesson from April 2018
At the peak of the April 2018 storm, 180,000 Vector customers had no power. By 20 April about 150 were still off, a large share of them because of damaged service lines, which were the owners' responsibility to fix.
Who gets reconnected first
Vector restores main high voltage lines and substations first, then transformers and the low voltage lines to homes. It aims to keep outages generally to four hours or less, but after a severe storm it can take a few days. Counties Energy makes dangerous lines safe first, fixes single properties last, and warns rural repairs can be slow.
Floods
On 27 January 2023, Albert Park took 280 mm of rain in under 24 hours, and about 26,500 Auckland homes lost power at the peak of the Anniversary Weekend floods. Wiring, power points and switchboards that got wet need checking before the power goes back on.
Trees and cyclones
Cyclone Gabrielle caused around 300 outages on Vector's overhead lines, mainly from vegetation. Only approved utility arborists may trim within four metres of a network line, but the tree rules cover Vector's lines, not your own service line.
When it's a job for an emergency electrician
Vector says that if there's a problem with your electricity service line, call an electrician, because repairing a fault on the owner's line or equipment is the property owner's responsibility. The same goes for anything on your side: a switchboard that's tripped and won't reset, a burning smell from a power point, or circuits that died after water got in.
Not every after-hours call needs an electrician. If the whole street is dark, an electrician can't fix it, so check Vector's Outage Centre first. Vector texts outage updates from 5877.
Look for an electrician who does fault-finding and service line repairs as everyday work. We can't promise how quickly anyone arrives, but where we have one who takes urgent jobs near you, we'll put you in touch.
Our take on Auckland emergencies
Save Vector's or Counties Energy's faults number now, and know where your main switch is. After a storm, look at the line from the pole to your house from a safe distance: if it's sagging, down or pulled off the house, keep clear, let the lines company make it safe, then get an electrician to repair your side. And if anything got wet, keep it off until it's checked.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.