The cut, which started about 9am, affected more than 8000 power users, Aurora communications manager Lisa Gloag said.
Areas affected stretched from the Cromwell Gorge to Beaumont and into the Maniototo.
Mr Cadogan said the community deserved answers.
"I think the community needs an explanation as to exactly what happened ... [and] an explanation the average punter can understand."
While he believed there were now fewer unplanned power outages in Central Otago, they were still occurring too often.
"Anecdotally, and from what I’m seeing, it’s not happening as much, which is what one would expect given the amount of investment that’s gone into fixing the network."
Mr Cadogan said a business owner contacted him to say Aurora informed them their business needed to have a generator and that was unacceptable.
"We should have a power supply where the activities of a business aren’t adversely affected," Mr Cadogan said.
Dunstan Hospital allied health director Lynda McCutcheon said the event highlighted the hospital’s excellent emergency response plan.
The community could have confidence in the way everything kicked in as required, Mrs McCutcheon said.
Generators supplied power to all areas of the hospital with only radiology, which drew large amounts of power, having to delay some appointments.
Uncertainty about how long the power outage would be was their only concern but they had the back up of Dunedin and Lakes District hospitals if needed, she said.
Cromwell woman Helen Hucklebridge was at Dunstan Hospital when the power went out.
"I was absolutely stripped off into my gown, the lady came to get me and the power went off, but they did [x-ray] me seeing I was there and all ready to go, they could do me on the portable machine," Mrs Hucklebridge said.
Castlewood and Ranui rest homes facilities manager Leigh McLeod said the power cut had not affected residents.
Cafe owners were not so lucky. Cafe Rossi, in Alexandra, was left with full cabinets of food that was given away.
Manager Krystal Scott said they could only do so much.
"It sucked with the sandwiches that were already made ... but I’d rather give them away than chuck them out," she said.
Aurora Energy operations and network performance general manager Matt Settle said the outage happened when one of two main power lines from the national grid at Clyde tripped.
One line had been taken out of service by Transpower for planned maintenance more than 24 hours earlier when the other line tripped.
The load on the line was well below capacity and not related to the trip.
Fault response crews patrolled the lines but did not identify specific damage. Investigations would continue to identify any intermittent issues and resolve them, he said.
