It is hoped power will be restored this afternoon to more than 100 properties after a substation in Clydevale exploded this morning.
About 130 homes in and around the South Otago township were still without power at 11.30am following the explosion in a transformer.
Powernet chief executive Jason Franklin said it was not know what caused the 6.41am explosion.
Some 560 customers in the immediate area lost power, but most had been reconnected to other substations and those remaining affected were in the immediate Clydevale area.
It was hoped the substation would be back in action later this afternoon.
Southern fire communications shift manager Andrew Norris said fire services had to wait over an hour for PowerNet to arrive and isolate the power to the substation before they could work on the fire.
Once the power was isolated to the substation services dealt with the fire with no major problems, Mr Norris said.
Two appliances from Balclutha and one from Clutha Valley responded.
By Samuel White
