What to do right now
Fire, smoke or someone hurt: call 111
Get everyone out if there's fire or smoke. Don't touch anyone who may still be in contact with electricity. Turn the power off at the main switch only if you can reach it safely.
A power line down: keep well back
Treat every fallen line as live, stay at least 10 metres away, and call 111. Powerco, Orion and Vector all give that same distance. Orion says that if a line falls on your car, you should stay inside until the line has been made safe.
Burn marks, a strange smell or crackling at the switchboard
Don't touch it. ENA (Electricity Networks Aotearoa) says to contact your local lines company straight away. If there's smoke, call 111.
Sparks or a hot smell from one power point
Turn off at the main switch if it's safe, stop using that power point, and call an electrician.
Water near power
Keep out of flooded rooms while the power's on. Leave anything that got wet switched off, and have a licensed electrician check it first.
Lines company, power company or electrician?
Your lines company owns the poles, lines and cables up to your property boundary. Your power company (the retailer) is who you pay. In a power cut, the Electricity Authority says to contact your power company or your local lines company, and if you can't get through to your power company, Utilities Disputes is on 0800 22 33 40.
A quick check tells you whose problem it is. PowerNet suggests looking at the neighbours' lights and the street lights first, Electra says several nearby homes without power points to a fault on its network, and Unison notes that an electrician can't check its network at all. If only your house is out, look at your switchboard for a tripped switch or blown fuse. ENA says blown fuses at the switchboard are a job for an electrician.
If you rely on electricity for medical reasons, tell your power company now, not during the next cut, and apply for medically dependent consumer status. In a medical emergency, call 111.
Fault lines for some of the bigger lines companies
- Vector (Auckland, Wellsford to Papakura): 0508 VECTOR (0508 832 867).
- Wellington Electricity (Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua): 0800 248 148.
- Orion (central Canterbury, including Christchurch): 0800 363 9898.
- Powerco (Coromandel to South Waikato, Tauranga, Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatū and Wairarapa): 0800 27 27 27.
- WEL Networks (Hamilton and surrounds): 0800 800 935.
- Unison (Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and Taupō): 0800 2 UNISON (0800 2 86476).
- Aurora Energy (Dunedin, Central Otago, Wānaka and Queenstown): 0800 22 00 05.
- Northpower (Whangārei and Kaipara): 0800 10 40 40.
- Not sure which is yours? The ENA lines company map at ena.org.nz finds it from your address.
When an electrician is the right call
Call an electrician for faults on your side of the meter: a breaker or RCD that trips the moment you reset it, fuses that keep blowing, one circuit that's gone dead, a power point or switch that's scorched, buzzing or hot, or a tingle from a tap or appliance.
Damage to your own service line is also yours to sort once it's safe. Vector says the line from its point of supply to your meter is the owner's, and Powerco says to contact an electrician about a damaged service line, who then arranges a temporary disconnection with an approved contractor.
An emergency electrician's first job is to make things safe: isolate the faulty circuit, find the cause, then repair. Some faults can be made safe at night and fixed properly in daylight, and that's often the sensible order.
Safe to do, and not safe to do
You can
- Switch off at the main switch, if you can reach it without touching anything wet or hot.
- Reset a tripped breaker or RCD once. If it trips straight back, leave it off.
- Unplug the appliances on the dead circuit, then try one more reset to see if one of them was the cause.
- Check the lines company's outage map, and whether the neighbours have power.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Any burnt, melted or sparking fitting.
- Blown fuses, or a breaker that won't hold.
- Damage to your service line or meter board, once the area is safe.
- Anything that's been in floodwater.
Where Sparky Next Door comes in
Tell us what's happening and your suburb or postcode. We'll match you with one licence-checked local electrician who takes urgent fault calls, and they'll contact you to arrange the visit.
We can't promise how fast anyone gets there, so for anything dangerous right now, use 111 and the lines company first.
What we'd do tonight
Make it safe first: 111 for fire or injury, the lines company for a line down or a switchboard that's burning or crackling. Then work out whether the fault is on your side or theirs. If it's yours and it can't wait, get an electrician who does urgent fault-finding. If the house is safe with one circuit off, it's fine to leave it until the morning.
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.