Major outage leaves more than 130,000 customers in San Francisco without power
By Jose Fabian
PG&E on Sunday said it did not have a timeframe for when power would be fully restored to San Francisco, as 21,000 customers remain without power.
Several San Francisco neighborhoods were impacted by a massive power outage on Saturday that left nearly a third of the city without electricity, according to PG&E’s website.
The outage map showed The Presidio, Seacliff, Outer and Inner Richmond, Golden Gate Park, the Panhandle, Inner and Outer Sunset, and part of West of Twin Peaks as being affected. Parts of the Western Addition and Downtown were also shown as being part of the power outage.
Just before 3 p.m., PG&E’s website stated that about 30% of the city was without power. As of late Saturday afternoon, more than 130,000 customers were without service, the utility provider said.
PG&E said power was restored to about 100,000 customers by 11 p.m. local time, and they expected to restore power to thousands more overnight.
On Sunday morning, PG&E said about 21,000 customers were still without power, and that it was repairing a substation after a fire caused “significant and extensive” damage.
The first power outage started around 9:40 a.m.
At about 3:15 p.m., the San Francisco Fire Department said it was working a one-alarm fire at PG&E’s substation located at 8th and Mission streets. Fire crews said they were working to shut down power and extinguish the fire with carbon dioxide.
PG&E has not said what may have caused the outages.
BART said the Powell Street and the Civic Center stations were closed due to the power outage. Muni said its trains were not getting into the Muni Metro and Central Subway due to the outage.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said at about 9 p.m. that the two BART stations were reopening and Muni services were resuming. However, lingering effects of the closure were expected to impact services.
“If you don’t need to travel tonight, please stay off the roads and stay inside,” Lurie said.
Lurie added that more officers will be at intersections and corridors to ensure safety.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said the outage may be affecting traffic lights, and drivers should treat the intersections as four-way stops.
The utility company said there have been no injuries.
