Hundreds still without power as storm, grid fault hit lower South

<p>Hundreds of customers remain without power across the lower South Island after two separate events — a national grid fault and a fierce storm — knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses today.</p> <p>National grid owner Transpower NZ hit a significant issue at lunchtime, cutting supply to most of Southland for around two hours and leaving approximately 25,000 customers in the dark.</p> <p>At the same time, stormy conditions that battered Southland and parts of Otago from the early hours of Sunday and through the afternoon caused their own outages across the region.</p> <p>An <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/08/22/new-and-upgraded-weather-warnings-as-fronts-bring-rain-and-wind/" target="_blank">orange-level strong wind warning</a> for Southland and parts of Otago was lifted at around 2pm on Sunday.</p> <p>In its latest update, lines company PowerNet said about 300 customers remained without power and it hoped to restore at least 150 of those tonight.</p> <p>"The remaining 150 customers are individual faults identified throughout…