Power outage knocks out power to nearly one-third of San Francisco

A power outage began Saturday morning and affected significant portions of San Francisco, spreading to more neighborhoods throughout the day. By afternoon, more than 120,000 customers remained without service, according to data from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the PowerOutage.com site.

The figure represents about one-third of the city's approximately 414,000 electric customers.

Substation fire and emergency response efforts

The San Francisco Fire Department reported that its crews were extinguishing a fire at a PG&E substation located downtown. Officials asked residents to avoid the area while emergency work was underway.

PG&E reports system stabilization

PG&E said in a statement released on X that it was working with emergency crews and municipal authorities to resolve the outage. The company said it had stabilized the power grid and did not expect additional outages at this time, but did not provide further details or immediately respond to requests for comment.

Large areas of the north and downtown affected

According to PG&E maps, the outage affected a wide swath of neighborhoods in the city's northern half. Among the affected areas were the Richmond and Sunset districts, as well as sectors extending through Haight-Ashbury and into downtown San Francisco.

The areas without service were marked in red on the company's map, reflecting the extent of the outage.