Thousands in San Francisco still without power as PG&E outage drags on

"Thousands of San Franciscans remain without power on Sunday morning as PG&E crews continue to work to restore electricity after a now nearly day-long outage. The issue appeared to originate from a PG&E substation at 8th and Mission streets, Supervisor Matt Dorsey said on social media. At around 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the San Francisco Fire Department reported they were responding to a fire at the location. Dorsey, who represents the South of Market district, said the same substation was responsible for a blackout on Dec. 21, 2003, affecting about 120,000 customers at the time."

"By 11:30 p.m. Saturday, PG&E had restored power to about 95,000 customers, leaving 35,000 still in the dark as of Sunday morning. "Crews will continue working through the night completing safety inspections," the utility company said in a statement. The PG&E outage map shows most areas on the western side of the city sill without power should be restored around 8 a.m."

"At the height of the outages, approximately 130,000 San Francisco customers were without power, or approximately 30% of the city. Impacted areas included the Richmond, Sunset, Haight Ashbury, Hayes Valley, Forest Hill, all of Golden Gate Park and the Presidio and parts of downtown and South of Market. Outages were reported as early as about 9:40 a.m. in some parts of the city."

Thousands of residents experienced a nearly day-long power outage originating at a PG&E substation at 8th and Mission streets, where a fire prompted a fire department response around 3:15 p.m. The same substation previously caused a large blackout in 2003. PG&E is investigating the cause while crews completed safety inspections overnight. By late Saturday, approximately 95,000 customers had power restored, leaving about 35,000 still out as of Sunday morning, with many western neighborhoods expected restored by 8 a.m. At peak, about 130,000 customers were affected, causing citywide traffic light failures and disruption to autonomous vehicles.

Read at SFGATE