Essential Energy identified the source of an unplanned outage impacting more than 5000 people in the region.

Acting operations manager Northern Tablelands, Darren Guy, said crews detected a fault, which made the electricity network protection equipment automatically switch the power off.

"To ensure the safety of the public and property, the electricity network automatically switched power off at 11.43am," Mr Guy said.

"Crews responded immediately, and a patrol of the area located a broken insulator on a high voltage powerline which supplies power to the area."

Due to the location of the fault, it was not possible to re-route the electricity network around the fault.

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A power outage spanning from the outskirts of Breeza almost to Wingen and further out is impacting thousands of people.

Residents across many north western towns lost power at about 11.40am on Thursday, but it is unknown at this stage what has caused the outage.

Essential Energy's website shows that about 5388 people are impacted by the outage.

Essential Energy is investigating how it has happened.

It's unknown when the power will come back on.

More to come soon.