“Multiple businesses have power outages right throughout down the street [Hewletts Rd].”
Another employee said the power was out all the way to Pāpāmoa.
A police spokesman said contractors had been advised about the traffic lights and officers were responding to the issue where able.
A PowerCo spokesperson said it was a Transpower outage linked to a fault at the Mount Maunganui substation, and they were investigating it.
A Transpower spokesman said confirmed it was a fault at the substation.
A 1.20pm update said Powerco had been able to backfeed power to half of its network, and Transpower teams were working on getting power back on to everyone else as soon as possible.
“We appreciate your patience while we do this.”
A spokesman earlier said they were unsure when the power will be back on as they did not know the cause, but he said it may take a couple of hours.
Bay of Plenty Civil Defence said via social media several hundred homes had lost power in Mount Maunganui and it was also affecting traffic lights.
“Please take care out there, or better yet- stay off the roads if you can.
”Transpower tell us they hope to get it back up mid-afternoon – but no guarantees,” the post said.