San Francisco’s Richmond District was back in the dark yesterday afternoon after an unplanned power outage cut electricity to roughly 3,600 customers, the latest hit in a bruising holiday week. The lights went out a little after 2 p.m., forcing restaurants, small businesses, and residents to scramble yet again, although most customers saw the power restored in under two hours.
PG&E’s online outage center showed the affected pocket of the Richmond and tallied customer counts on its map as crews headed out to track down the problem and make repairs. As reported by SFGATE, the utility initially listed more than 4,100 customers on its tracker before adjusting that number to about 3,600 and moving an early restoration estimate of 7:15 p.m. up to 4 p.m.
Quick timeline and restoration
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, PG&E first alerted customers to the outage at roughly 2:20 p.m., and power was fully restored for the affected group by about 3:58 p.m. The utility publicly praised crews for the quick turnaround and said it is investigating exactly what went wrong. Still, the fast fix yesterday did little to cool tempers after a week of repeated blackouts.
Third outage in less than two weeks
This Richmond blackout follows a string of recent disruptions that started with a Dec. 20 substation fire that knocked out power to roughly 130,000 customers across the city, according to the Los Angeles Times. Another outage last Saturday hit more than 6,000 residents in the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods, and neighbors have complained about loud diesel generators parked near 24th Avenue and Balboa Street, which were installed to keep critical circuits running during repairs.
What residents and leaders are saying
Local leaders have pushed PG&E to communicate more clearly, and some officials have revived calls to speed up the city’s long-running effort to take over its electric infrastructure, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. Around the neighborhood, residents described feeling worn down and anxious about food going bad, small businesses losing revenue, and the general stress of having the power cut during the holidays.
Customers can track real-time status on PG&E’s outage map or sign up for alerts. The city has continued to offer hotel rooms and community resource centers for those affected, according to the Los Angeles Times. Officials say crews will continue to investigate the cause while the utility works to improve reliability on the west side of the city.
