Some University of Otago lectures had to be postponed and power was lost to the central university campus area, including the central library, during a power cut which lasted about 25 minutes, starting about 11am yesterday.
University property services director Barry Mackay said a contractor working elsewhere in the city, not on campus, had "disrupted a power cable", and Delta Utility Services had responded quickly to re-establish power supply.
The disruption was minimal.
Some lectures were interrupted and might be rescheduled, Mr Mackay said.
In other cases, podcasts of the missed lectures would be available for students to view in their own study time.
And some lectures were also normally run at multiple times, meaning students could attend a rerun of their lecture.
The Otago Medical School and university College of Education were not affected.
An Otago University Students' Association staff member said the association office remained open despite the power cut, but he had then worked from home for some time because of a subsequent internet-related fault.
