Electricity has been restored to almost all of the 68,000 customers in Tauranga, Mount Maungaui and Kaimako affected by today's massive power cut.
Powerco was given the green light by Transpower to begin restoring power following a fault on the national grid just after 2pm today.
Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said an automatic system switched the power off when the problem was detected.
"The system protects the integrity of the national grid," he said.
