No fuel has been available at the Kennebunk rest area’s northbound fuel plaza since 1 p.m. Thursday and a spokeswoman for the Maine Turnpike Authority said it could be a few more hours before the problem can be fixed.

Erin Courtney said the problem is believed to be electrical.

Courtney said an electrician was called in to fix the problem, which she described as an electrical malfunction in the pump interface system. When a driver inserts a credit card into the pump slot, the transaction does not register.

“The fuel is there,” she said. “We just can’t make the gas pump.”

A similar electrical malfunction, affecting both diesel and regular fuel, occurred about two weeks ago at the southbound Kennebunk rest area.

It is the third fuel interruption at a turnpike rest area in recent months. In October, the southbound fuel plaza was not working for a few hours.

Courtney said the pumps are owned and maintained by the C.N. Brown Co.