Napier residents have taken to social media after more than 6000 homes in the region lost power this evening.

Transpower NZ shared on social media that a cat connected with live electrical equipment which caused an electrical explosion at Redclyffe station.

There have been reports of outages from all of Napier north to Putorino and at Te Pohue on SH5.

According to the Unison website, the first outages began at around 6.45pm today.

Transpower provided an update at 7.25pm explaining the power has now been restored.

“It may take a little time to come back on at homes and businesses in the region,” Transpower shared.