SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Some power has been restored to San Francisco on Saturday night after about 130,000 customers — 30% of the city — were blacked out.
PG&E’s online outage status reported the number of customers without power had fallen to 95,280, or 23% of San Francisco, at 8:50 p.m. As of 9:45 p.m., PG&E said 70% of its customers’ power had been restored.
Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed in a 10 p.m. Saturday update that customers were seeing their power restored.
A PG&E spokesperson told ABC7’s Anser Hassan that more power would be restored around midnight.
As of Sunday at 11:30 a.m., PG&E restored power to 110,000 customers. The utility company says it’s working to bring back power to 20,000 customers primarily in the Presidio, Richmond District, Golden Gate Park and small areas of downtown San Francisco.
Outages were first reported Saturday in the Inner Sunset neighborhood at about 9:40 a.m., affecting about 14,700 customers. At 10:10 a.m., more outages were reported impacting about 25,000 customers in the Richmond District, the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Inner Sunset District, and near the Civic Center.
Scattered outages were later reported in parts of the Tenderloin and downtown before spreading to several areas around the city, including parts of the Mission District, the Chase Center, the Western Addition and other neighborhoods.
San Francisco city officials asked the public to not call 911 to report power outages, “unless there is a life safety emergency. Keep 911 phone open for emergencies.”
Lurie asked the public to stay off the streets because many traffic lights were out across the city.
The problem was centered on a substation at 8th Street and Mission Streets in the South of Market neighborhood, Supervisor Matt Dorsey said on social media. The San Francisco Fire Department said they were on the scene of a fire at the substation, which was reported at 2:14 p.m.
“We are still not clear when power will be restored to over 130,000 customers,” Lurie said on social media. “So what I am going to ask all of you to do is, if you do not need to go out tonight, stay home, be safe.”
Around 8 p.m., much of upper Market Street was still blacked out — and on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, which was a big concern for Dorsey, who represents the South of Market district.
“The Saturday before Christmas is historically one of the busiest shopping days of the year. We’ve got the Warriors game. We’ve got the ballet. We’ve got the symphony and everything going on. This is the worst time PG&E could have a problem,” Dorsey said.
San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said the city had been using all its resources to help PG&E restore power.
“This is unacceptable. I have never seen anything like this over the decade I have been here in San Francisco. There will have to be further investigation and questions that have to be answered about what went wrong,” Mahmood said.
PG&E is still investigating the cause of the fire. But PG&E Spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said progress was being made, with thousands getting power back by just after 8:45 p.m.
“We have restored about approximately 88,500 of our customers. So, there is about 42,000 that remain impacted. So, about that’s about 70% of customers who have been restored,” Sarkissian said.
Dorsey said the same substation was responsible for a blackout on Dec. 21, 2003, affecting about 120,000 customers at the time.
There was rain forecast Saturday, but there was no indication if the weather played any role in the outage. More rain was forecast for Saturday evening and for the next six days. Wind gusts could reach up to 25 mph Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
LIVE: Track rain in San Francisco Bay Area with Live Doppler 7
Power outage affecting BART, Muni service
BART closed Civic Center station due to the PG&E power outage. Powell Street had also been closed but reopened in the early evening. BART green lines were running with limited service between Berryessa and Daly City and red line trains were suspended between Richmond and Millbrae. All BART services were up and running by 11 p.m. Saturday.
The SFMTA said Muni trains were not getting underground into Muni Metro or Central Subway. “Muni shuttle service is running between West Portal and Caltrain, and to consider the 8, 30, 45 for Central Subway. Avoid non-essential travel.” More Muni updates can be found here.
Traffic, business impacts
The outage caused gridlock in parts of downtown San Francisco with traffic lights out at major intersections. Traffic signals in the affected areas should be treated as four-way stop signs, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said.
It also forced the closure of some businesses, including the Walgreens on Market and Ninth Street.
Autonomous ridesharing service Waymo said on its app that service had been paused in the city.
Waymo’s app shows that services are currently paused during San Francisco’s mass power outage.
Waymo App
The blackout also affected Internet service by some providers, including Monkey Brains.
RELATED: Videos show Waymo cars stuck at San Francisco intersections during massive power outage
Waymo, the operator of driverless ride-hailing vehicles, was also impacted by the massive power outage in San Francisco.
Orpheum Theatre, Chase Center impacted
The outage interrupted Saturday’s matinee performance of Moulin Rouge at the Orpheum Theatre. The show was cancelled.
“And we saw about five minutes of it, and then the power went out. And we sat there for about half an hour, and it never came back on, and they said the show would be cancelled. So, we’re all sitting out here now, disappointed,” one attendee told ABC7.
ABC7 also confirmed there was a brief power outage at San Francisco’s Chase Center that lasted from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Bay City News contributed to this report
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