San Francisco power recovers from major outage, 22K still in the dark

Thousands remained without power in San Francisco on Sunday morning as the city continues to recover from a major power outage caused by a fire at a power facility the day before.

At its peak Saturday, the outage plunged approximately 130,000 PG&E customers in San Francisco into darkness, according to SFGate and the San Francisco Chronicle, about 30% of the city.

The USA Today Power Outage tracker indicated more than 22,000 customers remained without power, as of around 9:30 a.m. Pacific. The PG&E Outage page puts that same figure at around 21,000 as of just after 10 a.m. The majority of the remaining outages are located around the Presidio and Richmond neighborhoods.

“At this time, we are unable to provide a precise timeframe for full restoration but will provide additional detail and information as our assessment and repair efforts continue,” PG&E said in an early Sunday update.

Major power outage started by fire

The San Francisco Fire Department reported that it responded to a fire at a PG&E substation at 8th Street and Mission Street around 3:15 p.m. local time on Saturday.

The Chronicle reported that the outages began on the west side of the city but then spread “block by block.” The newspaper reported that the fire was extinguished by 6 p.m. and that the company is investigating the cause.

“The damage from the fire in our substation was significant and extensive, and the repairs and safe restoration will be complex,” PG&E said in its Sunday update.

This isn’t the first time this particular substation has been at the center of a major outage. San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey said on social media that it was involved in another outage in 2003, when it plunged the city into darkness just before Christmas that year.

Outage causes Waymo shutdown

Video on social media showed Waymo self-driving vehicles seeming to stop in intersections, causing traffic jams throughout the city. SFGate reported that the vehicles appeared “baffled by the lack of traffic lights.”

Suzanne Philion, a Waymo spokesperson, told the online outlet that rides had been temporarily suspended in the wake of the outage.

Waymo said in a statement sent to USA TODAY that the service returned late Dec. ⁠21.

“While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events,” Philion ⁠said. “We are focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event.”

This article originally appeared on USA Today

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect