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The power disruption in Auckland means a day of lost production for the business community.
Police and other authorities activated emergency management plans after a 110-kilovolt feeder to the Otahuhu substation was lost in the rough weather.
The outage highlights the vulnerability of Auckland, which accounts for about 16% of economic activity, and 17% of the country's jobs.
Senior economist at Westpac, Nick Tuffley, says the blackout has an economic cost to business.
Telecom says the power outage affected its network, with some exchanges overloading as people try to call. Snow also caused network problems for Telecom in Ashburton and Timaru.
ASB Securities apparently suffered traffic delays moving to its alternative trading venue.
The blackout doesn't appear to be hindering investors trading on the stock exchange, which says a market holiday in Australia contributed to low turnover.
A spokeswoman for NZX, Sarah Tan, says brokers appear to be using backup systems.
Paymark, which operates the EFTPOS network, says the system is working. However, chief executive Simon Tong says the outage is having a flow-on effect.
The Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association says many firms are unable to perform their day to day operations without electricity.
Chief executive at the Northern Employers and Manufacturers
Association Alasdair Thompson says this type of disruption deters
firms investing in the region and he wants a full investigation
into what happened to ensure it doesn't happen again.
One News will be updating the power situation with hourly
news bulletins on TV One from 2pm.
