San Francisco Power Outage Affects 130,000 Customers

A significant power outage in San Francisco on Saturday left approximately 130,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers without electricity, affecting about 30% of the city's residents and businesses. The outage began in the morning, initially impacting neighborhoods such as the Richmond and Presidio districts, and areas around Golden Gate Park, before expanding to other parts of the city.

The San Francisco Fire Department reported a fire at a PG&E substation located at 8th and Mission streets around 2:15 p.m., which is believed to have contributed to the widespread outage.

Public transportation services experienced significant disruptions. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system closed stations at Powell Street and Civic Center, while Muni trains were unable to access the Muni Metro and Central Subway.

City officials advised residents to avoid nonessential travel and to treat intersections with non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops.

PG&E stated that they had stabilized the power grid and were not expecting additional outages at that time. However, the company was unable to confirm when power would be fully restored to all affected customers.

The cause of the outage is under investigation, with the substation fire being a potential contributing factor.