"Frustrating" power outages across the region due to nationwide request to reduce load
Thousands of homes around the region were without power, and some continue to be this evening, due to a nationwide request for power providers to reduce load on the national grid.
Transpower, which manages the national grid, said demand for electricity across the country had reached an all-time high.
"Insufficient generation has been made available to meet demand and manage a secure system," they said in a statement. "As a result, Transpower in our capacity as managers of the power system has asked the distribution companies to reduce load."
"Different companies will do this in different ways, some manage via load control on hot water, some manage via customer disconnections."
The company said the situation was expected to resolve at 9pm once peak demand for electricity had passed.
In a statement, Unison confirmed they had responded to Transpower's request and conducted a series of rolling power outages across its networks.
Close to 10,000 homes across Napier, Rotorua and Taupō reported power outages shortly before 7pm and most of these homes had their power restored before 9pm.
"We fully understand that these outages are frustrating and inconvenient, especially given the current cold snap hitting our regions," it said.
"We will do all we can to minimise the duration of these outages and apologise for any inconvenience."
