Power has been restored to an East Auckland suburb after a major unplanned electricity outage this evening.

The power cut affected an area just north of Whitford and was reported at 5.43pm.

In an update, Auckland electricity lines company Vector confirmed power was back on.

A spokesperson earlier said a crew was investigating the outage.

“Not all faults are easy to locate, and sometimes it can take a while to find the problem,” they said.

In some cases, before the fault can be repaired, the Vector crew may need to wait for additional crews to help, such as arborists or traffic management.