Assurance power is coming back on in the Far North, following an equipment failure's knocked out power for thousands of homes

Top Energy says the outages were first reported shortly after 5.20 this evening, with towns affected include Kerikeri, Russell, Paihia, Kaikohe and Kawakawa.

A spokesperson says they say they've made a temporary repair to the damaged switchboard and will now restore power progressively over the next 2 to 3 hours.

They ask for residents to conserve power use until we have completed repairs.